Horizon
by nepetaspurrfectkitty
Summary: It was just a normal day when it started. When the infection first spread, when it first happened; the day was normal. Until...well, everything happened. She had been saved by him, and now they were trying to survive in this hellish apocalypse; together. [ Zombiestuck! Main ship is KatNep, but other characters and ships will join the story when they fit right. Rating may change. ]
1. Chapter 1

**So...I finally gave in and wanted to write a zombiestuck fan fiction.**

**And here it is, with of course my OTP: KatNep.**

**This story takes place in the present day, and I did my best to explain what the two characters so far looked like and how the infection works. If you're still confused on how it does work or are seemingly interested in it, I will leave the info for the infection I have made up at the end of this chapter.**

**Ya know what, I'm just gonna shut up and let you guys enjoy this chapter before I start giving spoilers.**

**Both trolls are humans by the way, and yes there will more than likely be other ships happening besides KatNep. What ships? I won't say because I haven't gotten that far with deciding. Just know other characters will come at a point, or be mentioned at least.**

**Alright I'm shutting up now, enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

_**0 day(s) have passed since the infection first started**_

It was a normal day when it all started.

A young girl about seventeen years of age was in the grocery store with her mother, going about picking up the usual groceries for their dinner that night.

It first started with a child crying, and everyone simply ignored it; the kid was probably around four or five years old and didn't know better.

The crying progressively turned into a high pitched screaming, some shoppers got aggravated while others still continued to ignore it; thinking it was the same annoying child everyone kept hearing.

Until everyone noticed it wasn't the child screaming.

It was a weird, half-bent-over-half-not looking creature that was screaming, screeching almost. It seemed human to most; well, looking back on it now; that thing _wasn't _human.

It was gray, eyes black and dark. It had blood in its mouth, on its jaws; dripping, oozing blood. A dark blood was mixed with the red everyone knew and had in their veins. The things entire body was rotting and decomposing, and it was limping; at first.

Everyone in their sane mind decided to back away, seeing as how the entire family, two adults and three children, had its dark blood on their throats and bodies along with multiple bites along their necks. They were slowly _morphing_, it seemed, into that non-human creature.

The one creature screeched again, followed by the five others it had taken as its victims.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

The thing _charged_ at other shoppers, tearing their throats out as it began to feast; some victims started turning into the creatures themselves. The family behind, looking exactly the same as the non-human creature, began attacking shoppers; doing the same thing as they took victims.

Shoppers ran; the things ran after. Blood spilled. It oozed. It was _disgusting. _People were either dead or slowly being turned into those creatures.

And all Nepeta Leijon could do was hide and hope none of those things found her. She had been separated from her mother during the chaos, and she had no idea where she was. All she could do was hope and pray that they would both get out of this alive.

The creatures continued to run after shoppers, all of them seeming to run past Nepeta's hiding spot. They hadn't noticed her, and for that; she was glad. She immediately ran from her hiding spot, grabbing things off the shelves on her way to the front doors.

That's when Nepeta saw her; her mother. And she instantly dropped her supplies she had been carrying.

**Dead**.

Her mother was face down dead in a puddle of her own red blood along with that new dark blood.

Nepeta wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to feel all these emotions.

But she _couldn't. _

The only thing a seventeen year old could do was run. Just run away before the things noticed her presence and come for her blood as well; and that's what she did.

Nepeta managed to escape outside, keeping her sobs choked in as she ran far away from the grocery store. There were more of those things outside, but they were too preoccupied with the other people outside to notice Nepeta.

All but one of them.

One zombie, Nepeta had now started to call them that in her mind, had reached out from its place on the ground and grabbed her ankle.

The girl tripped, now falling onto the ground and scraping her arms and knees on the ground. She looked down, and saw the dark eyes of the creature.

It looked at her hungrily, and Nepeta screamed as loud as she could, trying desperately to kick it off or scream for help.

To her surprise, someone answered her call. A male around her age, probably eighteen really, had clicked a bullet into place on his handgun; and shot the zombie in the head as it prepared to bite into her ankle.

It fell limp.

Nepeta looked up and saw her savoir; a boy with dark brown hair, almost black, with, strangely, red eyes. He was wearing a black vest, with a gray cancer sign stitched onto it in the upper right hand corner, and a black long sleeve shirt under it. He was also wearing gray jeans and black converse, and on his left side pant leg was a gun holster along with a pouch next to it; probably to hold ammo.

He was still holding his gun, aiming it at her. "Are you hurt or bit?"

Nepeta shook her head, her voice and body trembling. "N-no…I'm not bit. A-a little scraped up…b-but I'm fine."

The male nodded, putting away his gun in the holster as he pulled her to her feet. "Come on. We've got to run. We'll catch up with names later."

He ran ahead of her, pulling her along ever so slightly as he had a sharp grip on her arm. Nepeta could only follow, thankful that this strange boy she had literally _just _met had saved her life from those things.

"W-what happened?" Nepeta choked out the words. The realization that her mother was dead at the hands of…zombies was finally setting in, and it made her almost sob. She kept the sobs choked back; she didn't want to bother the strange male with her tragedy, and she certainly didn't want to come off as weak to him.

He, at first, didn't answer. Then finally, "I don't know."

She was quiet for the rest of the time, no matter how much she wanted to ask more questions, no matter how much she wanted to cry and scream; she was quiet.

* * *

The two of them had finally gotten out of the city, after god knows how much running. The city was chaos, and the government didn't know how this particular thing had happened everywhere around the country at the _same exact time._

He was currently carrying a certain passed out girl on his back, and he sighed to himself.

_God Karkat…what's wrong with you? Why did you save this girl? You don't even know who she is, much less her name. You knew this was going to happen one day, and you knew people were going to die because of it, and you said you wouldn't save a single person from it; that people could take care of themselves on their own. Yet…why did you save her? Why did you suddenly decide to take her with you? What's wrong with you you dumbass?!_

Karkat could only sigh as so many thoughts took over his mind. Why did he save her though? He had heard from the news that people in the grocery store down the street from his apartment complex had changed into these things, and were tearing people's throats out and others were becoming them as well.

He had only decided to check it out to see if he could eliminate some of the damn things before others started turning. But he knew that the numbers would steadily grow from ten to a hundred to a thousand as more people became victims of this deadly infection.

And as he arrived at the grocery store to at the very least take care of some of the damn creatures about fifteen minutes later, that's when Karkat saw her.

The girl on his back was running from the grocery store and she looked like she was holding back sobs. A zombie, yeah he started calling those things that too, had reached out from its place on the ground and grabbed her ankle; yanking and tripping her.

He almost left her, but her screams for help tore his heart to pieces. He couldn't leave her there.

And that's when he moved, shot it as it almost bit her, and all that lead up to this moment with him carrying said girl on his back.

_Why did you move…? Why did you save this girl you don't even know?_

Karkat sighed again, shaking his head as he ventured into the woods about seven miles away from the city they had previously come from.

There was a cabin here that his family had bought a while back; two summers ago in fact. It was about ten miles away from where they were now, and after learning of this whole "zombie apocalypse", he had taken it upon himself to start stocking up on food and medical supplies for himself and himself only in that damn cabin.

And again his thoughts drifted to the sleeping girl on his back. She had fallen asleep when they had stopped to rest about two miles back; roughly translating to about one and a half hours of walking time. Karkat didn't mind carrying her, and picked her up when she refused to let him do so. Soon after, her complaining stopped as she drifted off to sleep.

Karkat had to admit: this girl was actually pretty cute. Her chocolate brown hair fell messily above her shoulders, the ends of it curling to fall perfectly onto her face. Her green eyes were closed at the moment, but he had managed to catch a glimpse of them when he had aimed the gun at her head.

He didn't mean to scare or frighten her when he had done so, but he had to be ready to defend himself if she had been bitten.

Luckily she hadn't been.

The girl on his back was really light: she probably weighed about 112 pounds, maybe a little less even. Her blue skinny jeans were a bit dirtied from where she had sat down in the dirt many times to catch her breath as they were running. On her top half she wore a black short sleeve shirt and black and olive green sleeves snaked down her arms from underneath said shirt. He figured she was probably wearing an undershirt just like him, and she was also wearing converse.

Huh, guess they had the same fashion choices.

* * *

The two of them arrived at the cabin about two hours later. Karkat was exhausted to say the least. While carrying her, he had to fight off about three of those god forsaken creatures. He was surprised that she didn't wake up through the fight, and that he was able to fight with her on his back.

Karkat walked through the door, shutting it behind him and immediately locking it: he didn't need one of those damn zombies getting in here.

Alright yes he started to call them zombies. What else was he supposed to call them?

The male walked over to the couch, placing down the sleeping figure and tucking a pillow underneath her head. She immediately nuzzled her head into the pillow.

That left Karkat to his own antics. He looked outside and saw that it was nearing sun down, the sun itself about to dip over the orange horizon.

The seventeen year old smiled slightly; such a rare occurrence that he ever _did_ smile. He would have kept that smile on his face as he continued to watch the sunset, but the girl stirring behind him made him turn his head away from it to watch her eyes flutter open.

And dammit did she look adorable doing so.

Wait, what the fuck?!

"H-huh…?" her light voice stammered out as her olive green eyes adjusted to the light that plagued her vision.

"Evening." He said casually, turning his back to the girl as he looked back at the sky. Huh, guess the sun disappeared.

The girl looked at the back of his head, then right into his red eyes as he turned his back around again to look at her after observing outside. "G-good evening…u-um; h-how long did I sleep?"

"A couple of hours. No big deal. You deserved it for everything you probably went through in that grocery store. You looked like you were about to cry when we were running the first few miles."

She looked down sadly, almost as if she were about to cry right then and there. But before Karkat could even think of asking if something was wrong or go to comfort her, she brushed off the sad expression just as quickly as it had come.

"W-Where are we anyway?"

"A cabin in Capitol State Forest. My family bought it a couple summers ago…but seeing as how all of them are dead, I guess it really belongs to me now."

At the mention of his dead family she once again let a sad expression go over her face. But before she could brush it off like last time he finally got the words out he wanted to say, and what she wanted to hear.

"You're not okay, are you?"

That sentence broke her, and she dove into his arms; sobbing as her whole body shook. Karkat didn't know exactly what to do. He hesitantly wrapped an arm around her, gently rubbing her back as she sobbed into his vest.

"I-I'm sorry…I-I'm so sorry…m-my mom…s-she…s-she was killed by those things…those zombies…she may even be one of them now…and I…I don't know what to do…w-where to go…a-anything…"

Karkat listened to her speak as he continued to rub in small circles on her back. He knew what she was going through; he himself had gone through it about a half hour before he had found her.

He had been forced to kill his parents. They turned, and he heard the screams of agony as they did.

It was either he didn't shoot his parents, or he did. And he went with the smart choice; shoot his parents in the head so he could live.

"Hey." The male lifted the females head up after she finished, wiping some of her tears away. "It's alright. I understand. You have to be strong for her, alright? Grieve now, so you can live and be stronger later. You and me, though we just met; we'll stay together okay?"

She nodded, wiping the rest of her stray tears away. "T-Thank…thank mew, fur saving me."

Did she just use a cat pun? Two cat puns to be exact?

What in the ever loving fuck?

"It…It's no problem." Karkat lied under his breath. He didn't want to tell her that he almost left her there to die; that would be a great way to make a fucking first impression huh?

The female smiled a little, not noticing how he was lying. She must not be very good at picking up on that sort of thing; much to Karkat's relief. "So…what's your name?"

He looked at her, leaning back on the arm of the couch. "Ladies first."

"Nepeta…Nepeta Leijon." The now named girl reached a hand toward him, and Karkat took it as sign to shake hands.

He extended his arm, and they shook hands.

"Karkat Vantas."

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed it :33 Also, if anyone can guess where in the U.S. this story this takes place; you get a pap on the head from me.**

**Obviously it takes place in Washington State, but if you can guess the city where this whole infection thing started; you get the pap and maybe some candy too.**

**I tried to make this story seem as realistic as possible, even looking up how long it would take to walk from said city to Capitol State Forest. I came up with 7 hours and 30 minutes on foot from city to forest.**

**So, for anyone wondering how long it took them on foot to reach their cabin; decrease that number above to 5 hours and 30 minutes.**

**So (if you're confused about all the time; let me explain), when were in Karkat's perspective and he's carrying the cat girl on his back, about three and a half hours have passed since them first leaving the city. The reason for this being three and a half hours is that they might have had to run into some zombies, obviously this is a zombie apocalypse AU, and they had to stop to take rests. **

**Then, as we move along, we get to them finally arriving at the cabin two hours later; thus making the total it took to get to the damn cabin is five and a half hours.**

**So, they traveled seventeen miles on foot in five and a half hours to get to the cabin.**

**I hope that clears that up.**

**For The Infection and how it works: **

**When you get bit by the infected, you have no chance of surviving like yourself; and you'll slowly succumb to being one of them. If you get their blood on your skin, you have a chance to survive. If the blood itself does not get into any wounds or cuts that you may have open, you will not turn and can wash the blood off with water; make sure to change clothes as well. However, if it does get into the cuts or wounds that are open; you are infected and will slowly start to turn. You won't turn immediately, but you will over time. Over a couple of hours, you will gradually start to turn until you fully succumb to being one of the infected. Basically, the infection acts and behaves like you would expect it to; it takes over a host, completely and utterly degrading their human skills as they slowly succumb to it. And how you get infected is pretty similar to what others do for zombie stories, as I explained above.  
**

**I hope that clears that up too.**

**I hope you also enjoyed this first chapter, as I will be preparing to write more.**

**And I hope everyone is happy, because I got paint today to do my Homestuck shirts; and I skipped out on painting them to write a new story.**

**Of course I enjoy this story so far and was willing to skip out on painting shirts to write this.**

**I just hope everyone enjoys it and doesn't get too confused with the time, travel distance, and the infection. :33**

**See you next chapter!~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Look! *points* CHAPTER TWO IS HERE BECAUSE I WANTED TO WRITE IT SO BADLY. **

**I don't know when Chapter 3 will come out...maybe at the end of the week because I have shirts that I have to paint for my cosplays.  
**

**Anyway, I'm sure I'll probably want to write more of this soon because I love it to death; so just look out for Chapter 3 soon I guess.**

**ANYWAY ONTO THE STORY.**

* * *

**_1 day(s) have passed since the infection first started_**

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

Three gunshots: one for each person in his household at the time who were victims of the infection.

_Bang. Bang._

Two now: both of them for his neighbors who were victims.

_Bang._

That last one hurt him, a lot. It was for his girlfriend, who had been bitten before he got to her. He had turned up at her house to come get her before heading off to the grocery store. He opened the door slowly and carefully, hoping that if there was a creature in the house they wouldn't hear him.

He should have known better when the floor creaked under his feet.

When it creaked, that's when she attacked him, jumping onto him and trying to tear his skin off; to get to the blood that lay underneath his tan skin.

He had thrown her off and aimed his gun, but seeing her once blind eyes now looking at him, black and hungry, broke his heart as he realized what he had to do.

_**Bang.**_

* * *

Karkat woke up from his once deep sleep, breathing heavily as the events that had taken place that day rushed into his mind all at once.

He had killed her; killed the one girl who had loved him through all the events in his life.

What was he supposed to do though? Let her bite him? Leave her there? She would have died eventually; someone would have shot her if he didn't.

_She was blind…she wouldn't have survived in this apocalypse in the first place._ That was the only thing Karkat could think to himself to get the subject of his dead girlfriend off his mind, and it made for a valid point.

Terezi Pyrope, his once alive girlfriend, was in fact blind. She had been born with it and always had to carry a red and white walking cane with her. The eighteen year old girl had worn red glasses and, like him, had known this whole infection was going to happen.

Because of it, they and two other people had begun to plan where to all meet up so they could survive. Also because of it was the reason Karkat was wearing a vest with his zodiac sign stitched onto it.

Kanaya, a part of the group of four who knew the infection would happen, suggested wearing black vests with their zodiac symbols in the upper right hand corner; so they could recognize each other when they met up. She also was the one who stitched the symbols into the vests. They had sent their respectable sizes to her address and, after she had finished each individual vest, sent them back to each person.

Terezi had wanted her Libra symbol to be stitched in red, but Kanaya had run out of red thread and Terezi settled for having it stitched in teal. Next to red, teal was her favorite color.

Kanaya had done her Virgo sign in a jade green, his Cancer in gray, Terezi's Libra in teal, and another friend of theirs Capricorn in purple.

The mere thought of Kanaya made Karkat's head hurt. _She's probably dead…just like Terezi…_

The male shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts before finally glancing up from the seemingly "interesting" couch to look out a window in the medium sized cabin.

It was still dark out, probably two in the morning now. It wouldn't be for another five or six hours before the sun rose and the many zombies out now would decide to rest, leaving just a few hundred or so to wander in the daylight.

Karkat figured that as long as they didn't stray too far from their place in the woods, they wouldn't run into all that much of those creatures. They usually would stick to where there was the most people, looking and hunting for their next victim; so that would leave the creatures to more normally be found in the city with some found in the country and forests like the two of them were in right now.

_Oh shit; Nepeta._

The eighteen year old quickly shot up from the couch and hurried down the hall to one of the three bedrooms in the cabin. How could he have just forgotten about Nepeta like that?

He opened the door to the one she was in, quickly yet still quietly. The room wasn't all that populated; a dresser by the left side of the bed, a lantern resting on it, a closet on the right side of the room opposite of the dresser and two chests: one at the foot of the bed while the other was on the left side of the room about three feet away from the dresser.

Karkat sighed in relief as he saw that she was still asleep and nothing had broken into her room while the two were in dreamland. Though, apparently either he or she had forgotten to 'turn the lantern off'. It wasn't all that bright, really only lit by a match they had found in one of the many cabinets. Still, it would be dangerous to simply leave it on all night.

As he leaned over to blow the flame out, he heard her whimpering and refrained from his activity. Nepeta was in fact whimpering, quietly and very softly; afraid someone would hear her. Karkat looked at her and set his hand down on the blanket covering her body, rubbing up and down her side to hopefully comfort her.

_She really is sort of cute and beautiful…_

Dammit not those stupid thoughts again.

"K-Karkat?"

Double dammit, she was awake now.

Looking down he was met with the olive green eyes of his companion. He realized he was still rubbing her side softly and pulled away as she went to go sit up. "Hey Nep."

"H-Hey…I-Is it still dark?"

"Yeah, I was just checking up on you. Ya know; it really isn't good to leave a lantern on, especially when it's lit by a fire." Karkat motioned over to the still lit lantern as he sat down next to her, earning a giggle from the younger girl.

"Sorry…I'll blow it out."

"Good. Now get some sleep, we'll be looking for supplies and other survivors in the morning."

"Yes sir!"

Karkat grinned and patted her head, leaving his spot on the bed to walk out. Behind him, Nepeta blew out the flame and the room was submerged in darkness.

* * *

"Nepeta we just started walking an hour ago you can't be that tired already."

"I wasn't able to fall back asleep after you walked out!"

"You know that's untrue. You were asleep when I came to wake you this morning."

"That was for two hours, if that! Come on Karkat can't we take a little rest?"

Said boy rubbed his head. According to her, Nepeta hadn't been able to fall back asleep after his intrusion into her room. But yet when he went to go get her up that morning so they could start their search, she was passed out on top of the covers.

"I told you we can't. We have to make it out of the forest by at least noon and head to the city to search for supplies."

Nepeta pouted and fumbled around with the claws she had sewed onto her gloves. Karkat didn't think that her weapon of choice was all that good but after seeing her in a battle with one of those creatures: Boy was he scared of her now.

She had found the gloves in one of the chests in her room, specifically the one at the foot of the bed. After a quick stitch up with a sewing needle and thread they had found in a cabinet along with the claws themselves being sharpened with a pocket knife, the gloves were as good as new and ready for use.

Karkat had chosen to stick to his hand gun. Luckily for him he had found ammo in the same cabinet they had found the sewing needle and thread, along with a medical kit. Some of that medical kit was in Nepeta's pouch which was conveniently on her right pant leg while the pouch containing ammo was on Karkat's left.

Nepeta was in charge of medical attention if either of them or a survivor needed it right away. Of course, if Karkat needed it they had to wait till they were not around rotting corpses trying to eat them to patch him up. In that pouch was the same thread and needle Nepeta had used to sew up her gloves for wounds that were too serious along with peroxide, gauze, and the same pocket knife she had used to sharpen the claws.

A scream sounded the both of them out of their thoughts, yelling frantically for help as another scream, a _screech_ almost, was heard just after the first voice. To Karkat it sounded like there was a survivor that was either about to be eaten by a creature or being chased by one. Either way, a survivor was a survivor; and they needed all the help they could get.

Karkat looked over at his companion, who nodded in understanding at the look in his eyes that said "we have to help them". The both of them took off running toward the scream.

In no less than five minutes they were met with the person who had screamed. It was a young boy who looked to be about seventeen, the same age as Nepeta, being held down by a creature. He had short raven hair and behind wire framed glasses held his terrified blue eyes.

As soon as the creature was in sight, Karkat aimed and shot.

_Bang._

The creature was hit in the shoulder, and it turned away from its once prey to look at the two newcomers. Instead of biting the boy, it ran toward him and Nepeta and Karkat barely had time to react before shooting again.

_Bang._

This time, the creature dropped dead just two feet away from Nepeta and him. The female ran forward over the corpse to help the new person, inspecting his body for bite marks or any wounds in general. After observing the body he had shot dead, Karkat moved over to join them as Nepeta was explaining themselves.

"We heard your scream and immediately ran to find you. Thank goodness we arrived in time. I'm Nepeta, Nepeta Leijon." She motioned to behind her, "This is Karkat Vantas. We're survivors just like you. We won't hurt you, we promise."

The sympathy and overall worry in her voice calmed the boy down from his shaking fit as he spoke. "T-Thank you."

"It's no problem at all. We're glad there are other people besides us in these woods." Nepeta smiled, continuing, "Do you mind telling us your name?"

"John Egbert."

"Nice to meet you John!"

"Yeah, nice to meet ya dumbass."

John looked back at Karkat, his eyebrow raised as he proceeded to look at the female. She only had a sheepish grin on her face as she waved a hand at him. "Don't mind Karkat, he's crabby sometimes, but he'll warm up to you soon enough…I hope."

The raven haired smiled and nodded. "I hope so too."

As Nepeta helped the newcomer get up onto his feet, "Mr. Crabbypants" walked back over to the corpse and kicked it onto its back. He almost dropped dead as he saw the face of one of his classmates and friend staring back at him through now lifeless dark eyes.

He choked out the name softly, "T…Tavros?"

* * *

Three hours have passed since the three of them had first left the spot where Karkat and Nepeta had first met and saved John. They were about an hour and twenty minutes away from their destination; the city of Olympia, Washington. Apparently, John was from the same city as them but he lived on the other side of it.

John had explained that he had awoken the previous morning to go downstairs to find his father gone, something he later explained that was normal to happen, and made himself breakfast while he attempted to watch TV an hour or two after finishing it. The news was on, and that's when the boy had seen what was happening at the grocery store Nepeta and Karkat were at.

Like Karkat, John had decided to leave his house to see if he could take care of some of the creatures. He had grabbed his weapon of choice: a hammer.

Karkat had mentally face palmed at that part of the story. Seriously? He had a gun while Nepeta had claws, and the best weapon John could ever grab was a _hammer_? Damn was this John person a dumbass, like he had expected.

Before the other male could even make a comment about how dumb it was to grab a _hammer_ for a weapon of all things, John continued with his story. He had gone down to the same grocery store mentioned; arriving there about twenty minutes after Karkat and Nepeta had left to make their trek to the cabin.

The next part hurt John to say, and it hurt Nepeta to even hear it. Apparently, Nepeta's mother, like she had predicted, had been changed into one of the creatures. John had described exactly what her mother looked like and what she was wearing when he saw her.

To Karkat, it hurt him more than ever to see Nepeta's expression go from ecstatically happy to heartbreakingly sad as John described that he had killed Nepeta's mother along with a few others when they attacked him.

At first, both boys thought they saw tears start to slip from the females eyes after John had finished speaking. Before either of them could speak up, god what was with Karkat not being able to comment on things today, she had wiped her eyes before the tears could slip from them.

Nepeta smiled at the both of them, her eyes closed, yet she seemed…content, with what she heard. She opened her olive green eyes and didn't look anywhere else but Karkat's red ones as she repeated words from before.

"'Grieve now, so you can live and be stronger later', right Karkat?"

* * *

**I had to reuse that line at the end from the last chapter. It seemed to fit right, and it just shows that even in one day Nepeta has managed to change a lot. **

**I'm sorry if it seems like everything is happening too fast. I wanted to introduce another character, AN ALIVE ONE, and I was looking through the characters I had planned to include in this story and my best choice was none other than the Heir of Breath himself: John Egbert!**

**But back onto the subject of everything happening too fast: The reason it seems this way is that the first chapter started at one or two in the afternoon, leading up to where it would be seven in the evening when our two main characters reached the cabin. Then this chapter picks up with Karkat waking in the middle of the night and all that good stuff.**

**Also please don't kill me that Terezi is dead. Please don't. I knew before long people would be asking where Terezi was and all that, so I basically dedicated the first part of this chapter to mentioning Karezi (Karkat x Terezi). I myself am more of a KatNep shipper, obviously because OTP, but I don't mind Karezi all that much and figured that it was best to mention it in the story. **

**SPEAKING OF DEAD CHARACTERS: DON'T KILL ME THAT TAVROS IS DEAD TOO. DON'T STAB ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.**

**When I was writing that part, I was actually planning on it to be Kankri as Karkat's older brother, but figured that wouldn't work because of the first part of this chapter with the gunshots. So, I looked through the character list and was stuck between Tavros and Sollux. I ultimately decided Tavros because I plan on Sollux coming into this story at a later part. **

**So the characters that are dead include:  
Karkat's family (The Sufferer/Signless as his father with Crabdad (I COULDN'T THINK OF ANYONE ELSE TO BE THE SECOND PERSON IN THE FAMILY) and Kankri as his two older brothers)  
Nepeta's Mother (The Disciple obviously)  
Tavros Nitram (This won't be the only time he'll be mentioned, Tavros will be mentioned again at another part in this story I promise you)  
Terezi Pyrope (I don't know if this chapter is the only chapter she'll be mentioned in; more than likely she'll be mentioned again at a later point in the story)  
And Kanaya Maryam (She's mentioned to be dead by Karkat, but I HIGHLY doubt that is true *hint hint nudge nudge*)  
**

**I think for this story at the end of all the chapters I'll write about things that may be confusing or need better explaining, or simply why I chose to have a specific character killed instead of another. And also I'll be keeping a list of who is dead and who is not. **

**Also, before I bid you farewell dear reader, this story will only include the Beta Kids and Trolls with mention of the ancestors and Alpha Kids and Trolls.**

**Alright I'll bid you farewell so you'll be spared from me explaining anything any further. Bye bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

***gross sobbing because I go back to school on Tuesday and I don't wanna go and I also have to do cosplay stuff and laundry***

**Anyways, enjoy the third Chapter that took so god damn long because my computer froze up and I just got back from a friend's house like three hours ago and had to unpack and shower and eat food and then edit this god damn thing.**

**SO HERE GOES CHAPTER 3!**

**GO!**

* * *

_**3 day(s) have passed since the infection first started**_

Two days passed since Karkat and Nepeta had met John.

After meeting, the three of them had tried to venture to the city like originally planned but got lost after straying off the original path Karkat had taken to get to the cabin from said city. They ended up deciding to retreat back to the cabin when the sun was going down. Before it did go down however, they had managed to locate the original path and trekked back to the cabin for the night.

That night was hell for Karkat Vantas; he had to deal with not only an energetic Nepeta Leijon but also an almost equal hyper John Egbert. The two wouldn't stop talking _at all_ and Karkat just about had it with the two of them. Of course, like always, he wasn't able to get in any comments or tell them to both shut the fuck up before they fell asleep on the couch. Not long after Karkat dozed off in one of the arm chairs.

The day after they tried to make the trek to the city again; that was a suck-ass day in Karkat's opinion. Not long after the three left the cabin and started hiking, they were met with the faces of infected. Lots and lots of infected.

For about two hours or so they had fought through numerous hoards with relatively little injuries. After dealing with them, they had managed to make it out of the forest. But, seeing that it was about four in the afternoon when they had managed to get out, it would be another two or three hours before they got to the city; and that would mean they would get there when the sun was about to go down.

For Karkat, he couldn't risk putting himself, John, and Nepeta smack dab in the middle of the city at night. That would be staring death in the face, and _losing_.

He didn't need that.

So, the three of them agreed to go back into the forest and looks for campsites that may have been abandoned to search for supplies instead. Nepeta had managed to find numerous cans of food and another medical pack at three separate campsites, and John and Karkat were able to find another handgun for John to use and ammo for the both of them at a fourth.

They returned to the cabin that night at about eight and just in the nick of time as well. They vowed that tomorrow all three of them would make the trek to the city to search for any survivors and also for new weapons, since really the three of them only had one weapon on them; John and Karkat with handguns and Nepeta with her claws.

The next day, two days after meeting, the three made the trek to the city of Olympia, Washington; leaving the cabin at seven in the morning and arriving at precisely noon.

Not long after arriving, like they had expected; the three of them were met with the faces of infected. They had managed to fight off hoard after hoard, with only one of them, Karkat specifically, being wounded.

Really the wound was just three gashes that three separate creatures had inflicted on him and Karkat insisted that he was fine; but upon closer inspection by Nepeta, they needed to find a building to hide in so she could patch him up.

Currently, about forty five minutes or so after they had first stepped foot into the city, the three were sitting in a mechanics shop that had the windows boarded up and they had managed to push heavy crates up against the door so no other creatures could get in. John was inspecting the place for any survivors, or worse more of those damn creatures, and Karkat was leaned up against the counter of the once used register table with Nepeta next to him.

"Nepeta, I-Ow, I told you I was-OW, fine."

"Sure Karkat, as soon as you can say a sentence without the word 'ow' in it; I'll believe you."

"Dammit Nepeta not so much peroxide that's gonna s-OW!"

"Hush!"

And with that the medic stuffed a piece of gauze into her patient's mouth, just to make him shut up and not cause so much attention.

"Mmpfh!"

"Uh huh, do continue."

"MMPH! MFPH!"

"I'm sorry; it seems something is restricting me from hearing you. Do you mind repeating yourself?"

Karkat rolled his eyes, now keeping quiet as Nepeta continued her work. For the god damn medic to do her job he had to take his god forsaken vest and long sleeve shirt OFF; and right now he was freezing his ass off.

After about ten or so minutes passed, the little medic had finished her work, now taking the gauze out from his mouth and looking at him, saying in a playful yet snarky voice, "Fine my ass. You were bleeding badly, and if we had continued to journey on your blood would have soaked through your shirt and you may have fainted from blood loss pawsibly; and I don't think we want that happening now do we Karkitty?"

The male in question simply rolled his eyes at the nickname she had given him the day before. He completely disregarded the facts she had given him, only giving a grunt in response. "Can I put my shirt and vest back on now?"

"Go ahead, but try not to strain yourself to move too much." Nepeta stood up from her place on the ground, now going over to find John and see if he had found any weapons they could take with them.

Karkat watched the female move across the room, grunting a response to her that was probably along the lines of "Don't tell me what to do fuckass". He shrugged on his shirt and vest, standing up and leaning against the register counter, completely disregarding Nepeta's warning to not move too much, before moving over to find John and Nepeta standing by a shelf that had numerous weapons on each level of it.

John grinned at Karkat as he came over; indicating that he himself had found it and _not_ either of them. "Guys, I think this will satisfy our need for weapons at the moment. Don't you agree Karkat?"

The other male stared at the shelf, nodding and having to hold onto the wall to keep his balance. God, why was it getting harder to stand and stay upright? "I think…I think it will do for now."

Nepeta noticed his reliance on the wall, and the fact that he had completely disregarded her warning, and quickly moved over, placing a hand on his arm to help steady him. "Karkat I told you not to strain yourself. Your wound was bad, furry bad. You said you were fine but you weren't. And you're not looking too good either."

"I'm…I'm fine Nep." He muttered in response as he almost fell straight onto the wall; had it not been for Nepeta's presence next to him he might have done exactly that. John took his focus off the shelf and moved over to help the female with Karkat, who was now struggling to stay conscious. Dammit, maybe Nepeta _was_ right. Maybe he _should_ have listened and stayed put instead of standing up. God was he a dumbass.

"Karkat, you are not fine. I told you to stay put! Did you even listen to me?" She and John were now helping him sit down on the ground, and Nepeta's usual cheerful voice he had learned so well in the past three days was now full of worry and she had even dropped her ridiculous cat puns.

"S-Sorry Nep…I guess I didn't."

"Damn Karkat, maybe you should listen to your girlfriend more."

At that comment a glare came from Karkat and a look from Nepeta as the both of them simply stared at the other survivor; who was now looking terrified.

"W-what?"

A banging from the front of the shop started, and all three survivors sat there horrified leaning against the wall as they realized what that banging was.

Nepeta was the first to speak, standing up from her place next to Karkat. "…They're trying to break in," she peeked around the corner and quickly came back, eyes wide and horrified, "and they're going to succeed."

Karkat cursed under his breath; he was so utterly weak and half-conscious right now he would probably faint if he had to fight more of those creatures. And with the banging that was now the only thing that could be heard along with their breathing: it sounded like a hoard of those creatures.

"What are we going to do Nepeta?"

"I don't know John but-Karkat no, do not pass out on us."

The attention was now focused on the "leader", who had his eyes half closed and was looking extremely pale and weak. He wasn't able to focus, and only heard Nepeta tell him not to pass out and saw her green eyes and John's blue ones staring at him terrified.

"Karkat, please do not pass out on us. Come on we need you to be awake."

It was growing darker, and the banging was growing louder.

"Karkat oh my god come on. For once I agree with Nepeta on this, don't pass out come on."

The banging increased in volume and Karkat could see John now leaving his spot to stand up and peek around the corner again. Nepeta was now leaning in front of him, cupping his cheeks as she tried to keep his attention on her as she spoke.

"Karkat Vantas, I need you to listen to me okay? Do not pass out on us. Come on, we need you to fight with us and we can't-", John said something out of his ear range, cutting Nepeta off. Her eyes widened in absolute panic at what he had said and she turned her attention back to him, now more desperate than before, "Karkat there's a hoard outside. There's a hoard trying to break in here. Please, please for the love of god do not pass out on us. If you pass out there's a chance that all three of us will die here. We are not fucking _dying_ Karkat. Do you hear me?"

The male in question just looked at her, managing to hear some of the words she was saying. _Come on you fuckass, get your ass up. You heard Nepeta. You can't pass out and leave her and John there to die. Come on! Get your ass up! Move! Do something!_

No matter how much his mind told him to move, he couldn't. Karkat simply took Nepeta's hand and laid it over his gun holster, saying in a soft voice to her: "Kill some of those fuckers for me."

The barrier broke with a heavy _slam_ to the floor, and Nepeta unhooked the holster from Karkat's leg; taking the pouch full of ammo with her. She stood and turned to John as he was taking his gun out, both of them preparing to fight the hoard that had broken in.

The last thing Karkat saw before darkness took over his vision was Nepeta's grin as she held the gun in one hand and held her claws up with the other hand; aiming with the gun, and firing.

_**Bang.**_

* * *

_"KARKAT!"_

_ Said boy opened his eyes, staring down at a street that was unfamiliar to him. It seemed like he had been here before, like he had always been here. There was blood, oh so much blood around him; red…so much red and black blood around him. The blood of the infected and not surrounded him, and it almost seemed like the colors were a cage he couldn't move from; they were keeping him there in his place._

_ "Karkat! Come on get up please! We'll be killed or infected if we stay here! Come on please there is a hoard coming! Karkat come on please!"_

_ The voice…it sounded female, and very familiar to him. It was begging for him to get up. Yet, no matter how much he wanted to move, he couldn't bring himself to do so. It seemed like he had run out of all of his energy, that now he too was slowly becoming one of the undead._

_ It was like what was happening was…déjà vu. It had happened before, but when? Where?_

_ "Karkat come on! Please get up! I'm not leaving you here!"_

_ There was a tug on his arm, startling him from his thoughts. He really wanted to comply with the voice's pleas for him to move, but he just _couldn't_. He couldn't move, he couldn't even see right. Everything was spinning almost, spinning and spinning and spinning just to make him sick to his stomach._

_ Another voice, this one different from the one begging him, spoke, "****** please we have to go! He was bit! He'll become one of the infected! It's either we leave him here to become one of the undead or shoot him now!"_

_ "He was bit"? What? Did…was he becoming one of the infected now like the voice had said? Then, why was the female voice pleading for him to come along with her before he was bit?_

_ Another voice, different from the first two, now spoke. "** we have to leave KK here! I know you don't want to believe he was bit and I know you want to pretend it didn't happen but stop trying to convince him to get up! We have to leave KK here!"_

_ "I don't want to leave him here! We can save him! Please we can't leave him here!" the female voice was now on the verge of sobbing and it sounded like the owner of the voice was already crying. Who was that voice? Who was it…?_

_ "******, we can't bring him. You know this. He'll only turn and then come after us. Please ******, either leave him here or shoot him."_

_ That was a fourth voice, one much deeper from the other two. To him, it sounded like there was two females and two males arguing over what to do with him. He only recognized one voice though, the female voice that was begging for the other three to not leave him there._

_ There was a gentle tug as the owner of the one female voice was ripped away from him, her voice cracking. "No! Please! We can save him! We can save him please! Don't leave him here!"_

_ "I'm sorry Nepeta, but we have to leave him here."_

_ That time, he heard the name of the person who was begging for them to save him. Karkat Vantas looked up and saw her: Nepeta Leijon. She was being ripped away from him, sobbing and crying as tears just slid down her face. He couldn't make out the face or voice of the person who was carrying her away, and frankly he didn't know if he even knew the person._

_ He finally took that chance to look around at the two other voices; a female with black hair and a male with blonde hair. He didn't recognize either of them and didn't dwell on it too far as he looked back at Nepeta._

_ Sweet dear Nepeta Leijon: she was sobbing so badly and her curly chocolate brown hair he had come to love was sticking to her face. She looked like a mess, and she was a mess. She was losing someone close to her, someone who had saved her life when the apocalypse first started._

_ Someone she had grown to love._

_ Karkat could only smile at her as she stared at him, still sobbing. He felt his strength just ebbing away now as the infection was now working its way through his body._

_ He opened his mouth, saying softly and clearly for her to hear, "…You'll be alright, Nepeta…we'll stay together…you and I…we'll be safe…and sound…"_

_ Karkat saw her eyes widen. He had told her those words many times before, and he had repeated words from a song she had written many nights ago. She choked out some of the lyrics, loud and for him to hear as the other three survivors there merely listened to their final farewell._

_ "...j-just close your e-eyes..."_

_ One of the survivors there, the male not carrying Nepeta specifically, raised his gun._

_ "The sun is going down..."_

_ The gun was aimed as they continued; Nepeta singing the next line._

_ "Y-You'll be alright...n-no one can hurt you now..."_

_ A finger trembled on the trigger but kept steady. The infection was spreading rapidly through Karkat's body now and he could feel his conscious slip to it; though it spread it didn't stop his singing._

_ "Come morning light..."_

_ Nepeta trembled and Karkat felt his strength now retreat as he lost it all to the infection; the parasite he had created by accident when working as an assistant for a summer with three of his friends._

_ The trigger was pulled as the two of them sung the last line together._

_ "You and I'll be safe, and, sound."_

* * *

Halfway across the country, in Lincoln, Nebraska, a gunshot sounded at the exact time Nepeta's went off in Olympia.

The gunshot was fired from the same gun and same gender; just a different person.

Kanaya Maryam had fired the shot, and oh boy was she mad that these creatures blood had now stained her favorite skirt.

Okay it probably wasn't the _best_ idea to wear said skirt when she knew that she was going to be fighting these creatures.

A voice behind her sounded after she had shot the one creature dead, "Yo sis, has Karbro answered your messages yet? Or did that motherfucker forget about us?"

Kanaya sighed, looking back at her companion. "I told you that Karkat might be busy as well. He is in one of the cities where the infection first hit. We ourselves were lucky that the infection hit in the city north of us and then moved down. When he answers, I'll let you know."

"Alright motherfucker. Where we going anyway? You dragged me out of bed pretty early sis."

"I told you time and time again Gamzee; we are going north-west, to Olympia to meet Karkat and Terezi. Hopefully we will meet them halfway once Karkat answers my messages...and hopefully he hasn't forgotten his phone in his apartment."

* * *

**GUEST APPEARANCES BY KANAYA AND GAMZEE! WOOP WOOP! **

**In all seriousness though, yes Kanaya is not dead and, you guessed it, Gamzee is with her as well! They obviously don't know that Terezi is dead because Karkat forgot his phone in his apartment like Kanaya hoped he wouldn't do.**

**Oops.**

**So back on subject, our three survivors (Karkat, Nepeta, and John) are smack dab in the middle of the city and there's a hoard and stuff and Karkat's passed out.**

**We'll catch up with them later since I want to catch up with _OTHER_ characters. **

**Also that whole italicized part in between our main survivors and Kanaya and Gamzee's introduction is Karkat's dream sequence that he has while he's passed out. But it could be his death scene in the future?**

**Nah its just a dream/nightmare that he has. Calm down.**

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTERS****  
Karkat's family (The Signless/Sufferer, Crabdad, and Kankri)****  
Nepeta's Mother (The Disciple)  
Tavros Nitram (Classmate and Friend of Karkat Vantas who will have another role in the story)  
Terezi Pyrope (Girlfriend of Karkat Vantas who will also have another role in the story)  
**

**Just because a character is dead guys doesn't mean they won't be mentioned or play a bigger role later (HINT HINT NUDGE NUDGE FOR THE TWO CHARACTERS ABOVE)**

**Ah anyways I hope you enjoyed Chapter 3 because I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. It touches on things a bit more now that its been about three days since the infection first started and Karkat first saved Nepeta.**

**Also yeah the city is kind of in ruins because of the whole apocalypse and there's hoards of creatures everywhere.**

**Now excuse me while I go paint my Homestuck shirts because I'm trash. *walks away with troll horns on head***

**See ya next chapter! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Trigger Warning(s) for this chapter: It is mentioned of people committing suicide.  
**

**As you could all probably see from me updating the last three chapters, I have started to put at the top of every chapter how many days have passed since the infection first happened to give you a relative idea of how much time has passed. **

**The counter will be different for every chapter and I will only mention what happened between, for example, Day thirteen and Day sixteen if something relatively important to the storyline happened. So you won't miss things that have happened on days not shown.**

**Also replying to a review I got on Chapter three, DON'T KILL ME PLEASE *hides under blanket***

**Also replying to a review on Chapter one regarding the infection, please read the end of this chapter for your answer. **

**Enjoy Chapter four.**

**P.S. - Next Chapter we'll be ***SPOILERS*****

**P.S.S - Sorry if this chapter isn't all that interesting. I wanted to meet up with other survivors and show their roles in this story.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

_**5 day(s) have passed since the infection first happened**_

"Sollux…we've been walking for hours. Look, Eridan and Feferi are about to fall asleep. We've traveled through two states ever since the infection first happened, and both you and I have only met Feferi and Eridan. Please Sollux, we need to rest."

Sollux Captor looked over to his girlfriend, Aradia Megido. Her usual curly black hair was thrown up into a messy ponytail she had done this morning, and it was extremely dirty. He had promised her and his other two companions a couple miles back that they would find a creek, lake, or river soon and they would be able to wash off; girls going first while boys stood watch and then switching once both were done.

"…Alright fine we can rest." He lisped out.

"Yay!" both female voices, Aradia and Feferi, cheered in unison.

"About time." Eridan, the only other male beside Sollux, muttered.

Both Sollux and Eridan were of nineteen years of age, while Aradia and Feferi were a year younger than the both of them. For both females being eighteen, they really acted like they were twelve or thirteen.

As for appearances, Sollux had short blonde hair and wore red and blue tinted glasses, and behind those glasses lay baby blue eyes. Aradia had long curly black hair that, like mentioned, was thrown into a ponytail. Her eyes were of a dark mahogany, and that was one of the reasons Sollux had fallen for her in the first place. Feferi had light brown wavy hair that fell to her waist, much like Aradia's, and freckles decorated her cheeks and upon her strange fuchsia eyes were a pair of glasses the same color. Eridan had blonde hair that had been dyed black, slicked back with a stripe of purple in his hair as well. Like Feferi, the male had strange eyes that were of a purple color instead of fuchsia and wore hipster glasses; much to Sollux's dislike.

The four set up camp in a forest off a road in the state of Wyoming, near the city of Casper. Aradia and Sollux had trekked from St Paul, Minnesota, meeting Feferi and Eridan in Rapid City, South Dakota. They were surviving quite well in Sollux's opinion; he had two handguns with ammo for both, Aradia and Feferi both had two twin short swords that worked surprisingly well for them, and Eridan had another gun: an AK-47 rifle.

Their weapons worked well for them all, and it was quite comforting to say the least that they had not run into any of those creatures in the past fifty miles or so.

He should have not said and/or thought that.

When night fell, about three hours after the four had retreated to the tents and fallen asleep, they awoke to groaning of _those_ things. Earlier Sollux had been fighting with Aradia about how he wanted to protect her, to which she replied she could fight on her own. It ended in them both falling asleep next to each other, and now that they were awake he had demanded that the female stay put while he took care of things outside.

The blonde shot out of the tents they had set up just a bit earlier after managing to get Aradia to stay put.

It was nighttime, like mentioned, and about fifteen yards away were those god damn creatures.

He saw Eridan out of the corner of his eye get out from the other three tents: it didn't make sense that he and Feferi didn't share a tent; they were best friends after all apparently.

The other male was holding his AK-47, and Sollux was now pulling out the dual handguns he used. The creatures were slowly making their way toward the two, and as soon as the two males looked at each other and nodded; they fired.

The gunshots only rang out for about five seconds or so before Feferi and Aradia were both climbing out of their tents, weapons drawn and ready to fight. Both girls had their hair down, and Sollux wondered how they managed to fight these creatures and not get their hair grabbed or caught on something while doing so; and why Aradia had completed disregarded what he had said to her before coming out of the tent himself.

The two males ceased fire for a moment, observing how many were left. Luckily, it wasn't a hoard and only about four of the creatures were left. Sollux raised his guns to fire, but Aradia and Feferi rushed past him; wielding their dual swords elegantly. Aradia took two on the right while Feferi went left to take care of the other two, and within a minute both girls had decapitated their respectable creatures.

Aradia looked up from the one body she had decapitated and over to Sollux, giving an innocent smile as if though she had not just killed a probably innocent person five seconds ago.

"I told you I can protect myself, Sollux; and you didn't believe me"

Sollux only gave a smile as both females returned to front of their tents, Eridan retreating back into his own.

_Maybe she was right._

As the blonde prepared to sit down in front of the tents to keep watch for more creatures; Aradia's hand poked out from the tent and grabbed on his yellow and black hoodie from behind.

He looked back at her, confused yet seemingly interested in what she wanted. God did she look cute, even when she did just kill a probably innocent person who had turned just a couple minutes ago. "What is it AA?"

His lisp was ever so present, and she only gave a smirk and yank into the tent as she replied. "Come here you."

Oh shit was Sollux Captor in for a hell of a night.

* * *

On the east side of the United States, in Montgomery, Alabama to be exact, two people around nineteen or twenty years old sat in a once luxurious apartment building.

The infection had now just spread its way to their city and chaos was happening around all around it; people were turning into more of those _creatures_, others were dropping dead and becoming them as well. Fire was spreading like crazy as people tried to burn the creatures or commit suicide.

Vriska Serket figured that's how the world worked sometimes.

Those who didn't want to deal with this infection and apocalypse simply killed themselves and the ones who chose to stay alive would eventually fall victim to it if they didn't fight hard enough.

It was survival of the fittest in this apocalypse that had now spread. Their city had quarantined itself to prevent the infection from spreading when it first broke out all around the country five days ago; but apparently infected people had come up to the quarantine zone and one of them had managed _bite_ one of the guards without him noticing. In no more than five minutes did that exact guard turn into the same creature and attacked the other guards, and it eventually worked its way into the city.

Luckily for Vriska and her neighbor/companion, they had barricaded themselves in said neighbor's apartment and were now just listening to the screeching and screaming of the creatures and their victims outside. To her it was frightening a bit, but she wouldn't admit that to _him_.

Yes, _him_. Her neighbor, Equius Zahhak. His father and her mother along with their elder siblings had left earlier this morning and hadn't returned since. Vriska probably figured they were dead and…it made her a little sad. Though she would never admit it, she loved her mother and her sister, Aranea, dearly. The family had always had such a strange fascination with spiders, while Equius' family had one with horses.

Ah, such a weird coincidence.

The medium length blonde haired young woman looked over to her so called companion; she could see by his facial expression that he too was worried about their parents and older siblings. She knew he was close with his father, and sometimes got along with his older brother Horuss. Maybe he already knew they were probably dead, but it would still be a good idea to tell him right?

The female swung her hand over, giving him a light punch on the arm. Not that it would matter if it was light or not, the guy was fucking strong as hell. He could pummel someone if he needed or wanted to. "Hey, I know you don't want to be told this but…our parents and siblings, their probably dead by now you know; either dead or one of those things."

He looked at her, eyes hidden behind broken shades. Vriska still didn't understand why he still wore those, but it was probably due to the fact of him being strong and probably breaking another pair if he got new ones. "I know, but now I'm wondering where my father said he hides all our weapons. We can probably get out of the city with them…if only I could remember."

Vriska almost hit him across the face. Here they were, sitting on his couch in his apartment with the doors and windows locked and barricaded: and there were weapons in said apartment that they had not even bothered to look for.

Seriously, what the hell?

"There were fucking _weapons _in this apartment, and you didn't _tell_ me?"

And there the asshole went, sweating his ass off. Disgusting. "Well I-"

Equius didn't even have time to get to choke what he was going to say out before the female stood up from his couch and began opening closets, cupboards; basically anything that could be opened she was opening.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to find your stupid ass weapons. Now come onnnnnnnn, help me look."

The male in question stood up, grabbing the kitchen towel from the place it hung and patting his sweat. Honestly; that was disgusting. Why was she friends with him again?

After about ten minutes of searching, the two had located the weapons in Equius' father's closet; which made sense as to why they were there and not in a closet in the hallway. The only two weapons in there were a machete, which Vriska took for herself, and a bow with about thirty to forty arrows, which obviously Equius took. He didn't think he would need them, he wasn't very good at archery and better with his fists, but Vriska convinced him to take them just in case.

The two were now in the kitchen with three backpacks; all to carry supplies. The first backpack contained food and water for the both of them, the second with medical supplies, and the third was going to be filled with clothing. Currently in the third was Equius' clothing, and they were about to leave the apartment to go next door to get Vriska's clothing and more food plus medical supplies.

Vriska had her machete sheathed on her back while Equius was now carrying the bow on his back along with a quiver full of the arrows they had found; the sheath and quiver were both found in Equius' father's closet.

As they prepared to leave, the black haired male looked around his apartment for what would be the last time. He silently whispered "Goodbye" before him and the Scorpio female un-barricaded the door, now opening it and sneaking quietly over to said female's apartment.

They had relatively little difficulties doing so, the space between each hallway was loooooooong, but the shrieks from outside had since stopped; now replaced by the constant moaning of creatures.

_Horrible. _

The Scorpion girl opened the front door, the Sagittarius stumbling in after her as she closed and locked it behind him. She immediately went to her room, taking the pack full of clothes with her. Equius simply moved to the kitchen, packing food and water as instructed by the female as she went to her bedroom.

After finishing with packing food, Vriska came back out with the pack she had taken and two medical kits; which she instantly put in the second pack of theirs containing that kind of stuff.

The blonde looked up at her companion, staring into blue eyes that lay behind broke shades. All she said was,

"Ready to kick some ass?"

* * *

Back in Lincoln, Nebraska, a certain female and stoner male were resting in an abandoned building. They had moved from the inner part of the city outwards, trying to make their way out of it for the past two days. For Kanaya, it was probably the worst thing being with a _stoner_ of all people; not that she didn't mind Gamzee's company. The two had grown up as childhood friends, and after them working as assistants for scientists with Karkat and Terezi; the two of them had grown closer to the ones who lived in Olympia.

It had been so long since Kanaya had seen the two of them, and oh how she wished the crabby Karkat would answer her messages already. Perhaps he had forgotten his phone in his apartment like she had predicted; typical of him honestly.

She hoped that he hadn't forgotten Terezi either, or that the two had not broken up. If those two were broken up, it would be hell for Kanaya to listen to them constantly arguing with each other.

Then again, it would be a relief. Karkat would often pester her about something Terezi had done to anger him. He often got angered, quite easily if she might add, and Terezi constantly played pranks on him or licked him or _something_ along those lines. So really, maybe it would be a relief for Karkat to have separation from Terezi and find someone new perhaps.

Well, as new as anyone could get now in the apocalypse.

The short haired female looked over to her childhood best friend; who was currently taking another hit of his drug he was always on. To anyone, they would have thought he could lay off the drugs every once in a while. To Kanaya, she was glad he was on them.

Now that was kind of a bad thing to say, but when he wasn't on his drugs Gamzee could be _pretty_ scary. She could vaguely remember one time when he wasn't on them and he nearly strangled her to death. Luckily her sister, Porrim, had caught him before any serious damage could be done.

Kanaya frowned at the thought of her older sister. Porrim Maryam was most likely dead now. She had traveled to the city northwards where the infection broke out for a fashion show.

The younger sister had always idolized both her sister and mother; who were very big hits in the fashion world. She always wanted to become a big designer and have models wear her clothes, or even become a model herself. Porrim was both, and when their mother was younger she had been the same way as her first born; now-a-days though, she had become Porrim's manager and had scheduled for her older sister to be at that fashion show in the north.

Both Porrim and her mother were probably dead by now. They had never been fighters, more lovers. Kanaya was the same way, and the creature she had killed a while back was the first person she had ever killed in her whole eighteen years of living.

Gamzee's father and brother were probably dead as well. Kurloz, his older brother and friend of Porrim (such a coincidence that their siblings were friends with each other as well), and his father had gone to the fashion show with Kanaya's family; leaving their youngest there in Lincoln to fend for themselves.

Oh how stupid they were.

Well, the female couldn't exactly say that. The two families had never known that their youngest children knew the infection would happen, much less _worked _on it itself, and even if they had; no one would have been able to stop it. Not even the four stupid teenagers who had accidently created it with scientists in the first fucking place.

Yes, the four of them, Karkat, Terezi, Gamzee, and Kanaya herself, had worked on this infection that had now spread its way around.

Two years before this all started, when all of them were sixteen years old, they had been accepted to a supposed research facility to develop cures or treatments for diseases that had no cure or treatment. It was there that they all met, and there that they accidently created this parasite.

The way it had been started was by one chemical mixing with others it should not have. The person responsible for that was Terezi; she was a blind girl and Kanaya understood that it was not her fault for accidently knocking over said chemical in the test tubes they were using.

The one chemical itself was not the thing that automatically created the parasite. What happened after Terezi knocked it over was that Kanaya, Gamzee, and Karkat had tried to mix in other chemicals to continue the experiment they were doing.

Because of that mixing, a new infection was created. The four of them, of course, did not know this and handed the mixture to a scientist on the last day they were supposed to be there till. After the group had returned to their homes, it was only a week after did they find out what that mixture did.

What they had created was not a cure or treatment for any disease, and was more of a new disease. It quickly mutated, and became the disease that had now spread its way over the United States.

The four of them after realizing this had agreed to not tell anyone about what they had created by accident, and that's when Kanaya had sewed the vests that both she and Gamzee were wearing now; probably along with Karkat and Terezi as well.

The group had not only decided to not tell anyone of this infection, but also not to speak of it ever again. They knew in the back of their minds it would come back to bite them in the asses, but they hoped that wouldn't be for a while.

Now, two years later, their nightmare had come true.

It was because of Karkat Vantas, Terezi Pyrope, Kanaya Maryam, and Gamzee Makara that people were _dying_ or being _changed_ into these creatures. It was because of them people were losing their loved ones, their friends, their classmates, their _everything_.

That's when Kanaya broke. She simply pulled her legs up to her chest, and started sobbing into her knees. Because of them, people were losing everything they had worked for in life. Children, adults, teenagers; all of them were dead or a creature. If people were surviving, it would only be for a short while or they would commit suicide.

Those thoughts crashed down on the eighteen years old, short dark brown haired, jade green eyed woman.

_Because of us…_

Kanaya felt a hand wrap its way around her shoulder, rubbing her back in small circles. She didn't even need to look up to know it was Gamzee comforting her.

The Virgo woman simply turned her head and let her tears flow onto the Capricorn's vest.

"Hey sis...I know your upset, so let it all out on a motherfucker's vest or shoulder or whatever the hell you need. Just cry it all out. Then when you're all good and motherfucking ready; we'll move on."

She nodded her head and buried her face into his vest, just letting tears slip from her eyes.

It was fine to feel these emotions of remorse, pain, grief, and anger. It was fine to feel this way.

So she did.

* * *

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTER(S) SO FAR:  
****Karkat's family (The Sufferer (father), Crabdad and Kankri Vantas (older brothers)**)**Nepeta's mother (The Disciple)****  
Kanaya's family (Porrim (older sister), The Dolorosa (mother))****  
Gamzee's family (Kurloz (older brother), Grand Highblood (father))  
Equius' family (Horuss (older brother), Darkleer (father))****  
Vriska's family (Aranea (older sister), Mindfang (mother))  
Terezi Pyrope (Former girlfriend of Karkat Vantas)**  
**Tavros Nitram (Classmate and friend of Karkat Vantas)**

**Regarding the review about the infection: Getting a creature's blood on a cut in your palm will not turn you into an infected. The mixing of blood is like a process where it takes a while for the infection to spread into your body up to the brain where it degrades your human senses. Getting their blood in a cut on your hand is way too small of a wound for their blood to start mixing in and work its way upwards through your blood stream. You can disinfect the cut on said hand and this is a safe way to make sure you don't turn; which for the characters I would highly recommend they do so to be sure they don't turn. So no, getting their blood in a small cut on your hand will not turn you. However if the wound is large, that's when you might want to turn to amputations. Say a character gets a bite on the leg from a creature: If another survivor works fast enough, they can amputate the leg and make sure the infection does not spread. **

**I hope that answers that person's question regarding the infection!**

**I also hope you guys enjoyed this chapter because its like past 11:00 at night and I have school tomorrow and something to go to after school for like three or four hours so if I'm tired I blame you guys XD**

**Oh yeah, I hope you guys liked how I incorporated how the infection first came to be.**

**If you have any questions regarding how something works in the story or if you are confused on a certain part or just ANYTHING in general, leave a review and I'll answer it as soon as I can! I might start answering review questions in this little section too along with explaining things and of course the dead character list so you can see what characters are dead and which are not.**

**Chapter five is probably going to be my FAVORITE chapter to write because of ***SPOILERS*****

**Hahahaha, I'm not telling what's gonna happen; that would ruin everything! Just look out for it!**

**Until next time!~**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey Guys here's Chapter 5 of Horizon!  
**

**I'll answer review questions at the end, for now just enjoy this chapter that I got done editing about ten minutes ago and one that I REALLY enjoyed to write.**

* * *

_**10 days have passed since the infection first happened**_

_ The trigger was pulled as the two of them sung the last line together._

_ "You and I'll be safe, and, sound."_

* * *

Karkat Vantas awoke, frightened and in a sweat. What was that? A dream? A nightmare?

And more importantly, now looking around: where the hell was he?

The eighteen year old male sat on a mattress situated on a bed frame with a pillow resting where his head once laid and a blanket thrown over top of him. From his forehead fell a cold washcloth, slightly damp still as if someone had just changed it about one or two hours ago.

The room itself was small, lit only by light bulbs that seemed to be working still. It only contained the bed he sat on and in front of him, about ten or fifteen feet away, was a metal door. Next to the bed sat a chair, and Karkat figured someone must have pulled it up to watch him while he slept.

That was a little creepy.

_Where the hell am I? And…_His eyes widened at thought of his dear friends whom he had left to fend for themselves when he had passed out.

_Where's John?_

_ Where's…Where's Nepeta?!_

The male shot up from his bed, ignoring the aching pain in his side that radiated probably from stiches that someone had done there.

The pain didn't matter: what did matter was finding out where the hell he was and where the hell were his friends.

What was more important to him though was finding the female of the two. He could care less about the other male honestly.

His red eyes scanned the hallway he had walked out into: metal walls with only very small windows at the tops of them to let in sunlight. The glass was broken out from every window, but the windows themselves were way too small for an infected to climb through.

Not that they would ever try to: the creatures themselves were dumb as hell and really only relied on their hearing and smell. They could see, but relied on those two senses to help them find their prey.

The room he had exited out of was at the end of a long hallway and along the rest of it was about six or seven other rooms with a metal door at the end of the long corridor; presumably leading to the outside since there was a stack of boxes and crates up against it. The door also had a latch on it, obviously in use.

Karkat leaned up against the wall, steadying himself as he walked forward. Nepeta had to be somewhere in this maze. If she wasn't…he didn't want to think about that.

_Just move forward you fuckass. You'll find her. You'll find her. You'll find her god dammit. Don't think she's dead. She's not dead. She's not dead! Move you dumbass! Find Nepeta!_

His mind screamed at him, and because of that it was the only reason he kept moving down the long corridor.

He didn't know why he wanted to find her so badly; maybe it was because of the dream he had where he saw her sobbing her eyes out, maybe it was because he wanted to protect her and make sure she was safe.

Maybe it was because…he had feelings for her?

Oh hell no, not that. He didn't like the cat girl. Sure he thought she was pretty and cute. Who wouldn't?

He just met her a few days ago, and had saved her life and wanted to protect her for some odd reason.

He did not have feelings for another girl that quickly, since his once girlfriend was now dead that is.

…The cancer didn't want to think about her for another three days, or possibly forever.

So no, Karkat Vantas did not like Nepeta Leijon.

The dark brown haired male stumbled as he continued forward, now stopping as the adrenaline wore off and the pain came back.

Dammit.

The Cancer male slid down the wall as he came to be on his knees. Why did this have to happen to him of all people? Why him?

As more and more thoughts crossed his mind, both yelling at him to get up and thinking why he was the victim of everything; a certain girl had come out from a room two doors down from where he was sitting.

"Karkat?"

That voice…it wasn't-

Oh my god it was.

The male in question turned his head in her direction, and he saw her.

Nepeta Leijon.

She still had the same curly chocolate brown hair, now dirtied a bit and she was staring at him with those same olive green eyes. The female was wearing a completely different outfit from the last time he had seen her; a black short sleeve shirt with jean shorts that had holes in them, yet the same converse was still on her feet from the day he met her.

Karkat Vantas almost cried in relief as he saw her. There she was, standing in front of him with the same expression on her face that was probably on his; relief.

She was alive.

She was alive.

_She was alive._

Nepeta rushed forward as he almost fell face-first to the ground, catching him in her arms. "Karkat! You're awake! Oh my god, I'm so relieved." A pause. "But you know; you really shouldn't be moving."

He didn't reply or make a snappy comeback at her last part, but only sniffled. "Nepeta…Nepeta…oh my god…"

"Karkat?" The female patted his head, running her hands over his head to smooth out some of the dark locks of hair. "Are you okay?"

"N-Nepeta…I…"

That's when _he_ broke. Yes, Karkat Vantas broke down crying in front of a girl he had only just met; truly worthy boyfriend material.

He just couldn't help it. The dream sequence he had now just woken up from had scared him half to death, and when he awoke remembering what had happened before all that; it scared him to think the young female was _dead_ all because of him.

And now that she was here, in front of him on her knees cradling his head in her arms; he was so overjoyed and just full of relief.

"Nepeta…you're okay…you're okay…" Karkat was choking back sobs, just trying to get out what he really wanted to say and not look so weak in front of her.

Damn he was not having the best of luck in this apocalypse.

"Yes, I'm okay. John's okay too. We're both okay." Her calming and soothing voice flowed out as she still continued to run her fingers through his hair.

The male tightly wrapped his arms around her waist, now pulling her into an embrace and burying his head into her shoulder. The Leo was surprised at first but nonetheless returned the embrace as they sat there in silence for a number of minutes before the Cancer spoke.

"…Nepeta?"

"Yes Karkat?"

"…how long has it been since that attack happened?"

A moment of silence.

"…7 days."

Karkat immediately pulled away to look at her, and upon doing so; he saw that Nepeta had an expression on her face that was mixed with relief and sadness. What the hell happened while he wasn't awake? "It's been a week since that happened?"

She nodded her head. "Yes."

"Nepeta, where are we?"

Another moment of silence, longer than the last.

"…In a compound about fifteen to ten miles away from the city of Salem, Oregon."

* * *

After Nepeta Leijon had helped him back to his room and gotten him to lie down after countless minutes, she had explained everything to the very confused Karkat Vantas.

Apparently, she and John had been able to drive out the infected from the mechanics shop they had been in. Neither Nepeta, John, nor Karkat had sustained any bites from the infected; much to Karkat's relief.

After driving the infected out, they started to run out of bullets and the creatures kept coming and coming.

That's when three survivors had showed up in a gray van. Nepeta explained that the survivors helped them fight off the rest of the infected and offered for John and her to join them.

The two of them said they would join but there was a third person passed out inside. The other survivors asked if he was infected to which they replied "no", and her and John trudged back inside to drag a very heavy Karkat out.

Nepeta giggled as she explained that he was really heavy when he wasn't on his feet, and that her and John had to work together to get him out of the shop; making Karkat grunt at that point of the story.

She continued with her story, explaining the rest of the events.

After they had managed to get Karkat into the van, it took them three days' time to get to the compound they were in now. They had arrived at it about four days ago, and throughout the last week Karkat had been in and out of a coma like state.

Nepeta explained that he had awoken several times for several minutes before simply passing out again, not saying anything or looking at anyone. There were two occasions when she herself was in the room when he was awake, and both times he said her name and another girl's name.

"You said two names the second time I was in here actually." The curly haired female spoke softly. "The first time it sounded like you said 'Kanaya', and we were all really confused as to who that was. The second time, it sounded like you said a name that started with T. We couldn't make it out, so we let it go."

"Nepeta, who's 'we'? You keep talking about three other survivors who saved you guys seven days ago. What are their names?"

"Oh right! Well, their names are Dave Strider, Jade Harley, and Rose Lalonde! Dave and Rose are like…half brother and sister I guess, which would explain why they don't have the same last name like normal siblings would. Oh! And Dave and Jade are dating! Between you and me, I ship them."

The male chuckled. "Ship them?"

"Don't tell me you've never heard of shipping Karkat."

"I don't believe I have."

"Well it's-"

"Nepeta, I didn't ask to hear about it."

The female in question pouted, resting her hands by his left on the bed as she twiddled her thumbs. "Dang it…"

Karkat chuckled again and raised his left hand, bringing it down to settle on her hands to get her attention. "Hey, I had a dream about you."

Nepeta tilted her head and leaned forward, her curiosity at its peak. "Oh reeeeaaallyyy?"

"Mhm."

"Do tell."

So he did tell her of the dream; not leaving out a single part. She was a little scared at the part where he explained that he had been bitten by infected and was slowly becoming one himself; in the dream that is.

And when he explained that the two of them had sung a song together meant to represent their "feelings" (Karkat guessed that's what it was meant to symbolize, and told her that): Karkat Vantas could have sworn he saw her cheeks grow a rosy red.

There was no way.

No way in hell.

Did…Did Nepeta have feelings for him?  
No! No, no, no! No. She couldn't, and didn't. They were still friends, and they would stay that way 'till the end of time.

…Hopefully.

"That's…a weird dream. So, there were people that you didn't even recognize?"

"Yeah. Crazy, huh?"

"Maybe you've been passed out for way too long Karkat: you're going crazy in the head. Purrhaps we should seek out a mental doctor fur you?" A giggle came from her, and Karkat simply rolled his eyes at the use of her cat puns.

Oh, how he _**didn't**_ miss those.

"Ha ha, very funny Miss Leijon."

Miss Leijon gave another giggle and stood up from the chair. "Well, I'm going to go back to standing guard. John, Dave, Rose, and Jade are all out gathering supplies right now from the city and nearby our hideaway. They took the van and if infected chase after them, which they will more than likely: they might need our help. So, get some rest fur right now ok?"

Karkat nodded. "Yes ma'am."

She gave a toothy grin and started toward the door. "Good boy!"

The eighteen year old male gave a low chuckle and called out, "Hey, Nepeta."

The seventeen year old wheeled her body around, a look of absolute confusion on her face. "Yes Karkitty?"

"I missed you."

She gave a small smile, settling her hands on her hips. "I missed you too."

* * *

Three hours had passed since "Karkitty", as the girl liked to call him now, had awoken for good finally.

And oh boy was Nepeta Leijon not only relieved but also having a bit of trouble comprehending a certain subject regarding the said boy.

She was in another room about three doors down from him, holding her head in her hands as she continuously whispered to herself.

"You don't like him Nepeta…You can't…You just met him only a week ago. You can't like someone in just a little over a week. There is no such thing as love at first sight Nepeta."

Yes, the young Leijon was debating over her feelings for Karkat. She may have…a sort of, crush if you will, on him. Yet, she was rejecting her feelings mostly because she had only met him ten days ago. There was no way you could begin to like someone in only ten days, right?

Nepeta sighed and dropped her head on the table in front of her. The room she was in was a sort of "meeting room" that was used to determine where the current survivors will scout for supplies and other survivors. Yesterday they had held a meeting to discuss looking for supplies, and also the condition of their friend who had now just awoken.

Nepeta could still faintly hear the voices as they talked of the Cancer male.

_Rose stood from her place across from the Leo girl, saying in a soft yet dreadful voice, "Karkat's wounds were more serious than Nepeta had originally deducted. When I went to go clean his wounds to stitch him up, you could see that the gashes made were incredibly deep and he had lost a lot of blood before we had arrived. Though he had not sustained a bite from an infected person, a bacterial infection had started on the outer layer of the wound and if I had not cleaned him up right then and there; the wound would have been far worse."_

It was her fault. Because of her horrible medical skills, Karkat had sustained a bacterial infection. Luckily, thanks to Rose, the infection had been rid of quickly.

_Dave stood from his place, two chairs to Nepeta's right. "So what you're saying Rose is that because of Nepeta here; Karkat sustained a bacterial infection?"_

_ The nineteen year old female simply gave a shook of the head. "You misinterpreted what I said Dave. It is not because of her that a bacterial infection started; Nature decided that. All Nepeta did wrong was that she simply misjudged the seriousness of his wounds; which is completely fine. She has already told me that she does not have much medical experience, and told the male to rest after she had wrapped him up the best she could with the supplies she had on her. Karkat however did not listen, and so this put a strain on his side where the gashes were; causing him to fall unconscious."_

Yes, that was true. Not following her orders, Karkat had arisen from his place to join them in the back of the shop. Oh he could be such a handful!

_Jade sat there in silence, resting a hand over Nepeta's as she listened to the two siblings argue. John was not in the room, as he was down the hall checking up on Karkat per Rose and Nepeta's orders. _

Over the past few days, Jade and Nepeta had grown very close. The Leo had let the older girl in on some of her secrets, especially the one that was troubling her now.

She confided in Jade, and Jade in her. The two were slowly becoming best friends, and Nepeta wondered if the second they laid eyes on each other in the van seven days ago; something clicked between the both of them.

_Dave crossed his arms, glaring at the seventeen year old female who simply shrunk in her seat. Jade gave her boyfriend a look along the lines of "do not blame her for this, it is not her fault and god help me I will murder you in seconds if you make her feel terrible and guilty", automatically making the male sibling of the pair of nineteen year olds shrink and turn his attention back to Rose._

_ "There's still the question of what we're going to do with him if he doesn't wake up Rose."_

_ The other blonde bit her lip and looked to the pair of curly haired girls who sat in front of her. Nepeta was looking as if she was close to tears, and Jade was trying her hardest to comfort the girl by rubbing her thumb in little circles on the other female's hand. _

_ "…I know that Dave, and I believe I have come to a decision of what to do with him if he does not wake up."_

_ "Go on."_

_ The lighter blonde took a deep breath and turned her attention to her sibling. "If Karkat does not wake up in the next three days, we are taking his body three miles away from this compound; and burning it."_

_ Nepeta choked back a sob and Jade hurriedly wrapped her arms around the younger girl's neck, whispering softly to her. Dave walked over to Nepeta and as did Rose, the former giving her a pat on the head while the latter rubbed her back in small circles._

_ Dave's response to this decision after seeing Nepeta in this state was: "Let's hope he does soon."_

The voices soon faded away, and that left the Leo girl sitting in silence.

Karkat had awoken, so that was good right? She didn't have to worry about him being burned anymore, right?

Right?

Right.

He was awake and would be staying like this for a long period of time now. Karkat was okay. He was alive and she had gotten to see him again.

A bang from down the hallway started, along with the beeping of a car horn. Nepeta figured that it was Dave, Rose, Jade, and John trying to get in, and they couldn't exactly do that because the door was latched and there was a barricade of crates in front of the door.

As the female stood to un-barricade the door, which really would just consist of her pushing the crates over and unlocking the latch, she made a promise to herself.

No, not a promise; a vow.

_Karkat saved my life on day one. He protected me in the three days he was awake before this whole mess happened, and now; I'll protect him._

* * *

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTER(S) SO FAR:  
****Karkat's family (The Sufferer (father), Crabdad and Kankri Vantas (older brothers)**)  
**Nepeta's mother (The Disciple)****  
Kanaya's family (Porrim (older sister), The Dolorosa (mother))****  
Gamzee's family (Kurloz (older brother), Grand Highblood (father))  
Equius' family (Horuss (older brother), Darkleer (father))****  
Vriska's family (Aranea (older sister), Mindfang (mother))  
Terezi Pyrope (Former girlfriend of Karkat Vantas)**  
**Tavros Nitram (Classmate and friend of Karkat Vantas)**

**THE BETA KIDS ARE ALL ALIVE AND HERE IN THE STORY! FUCK YES!**

**And yes I ship JadeDave, fight me.**

**Anyways, regarding a review about the infection. The review read "Does the infection affect animals?". **

**Now, I actually thought about this for quite some time before ultimately leading me to finish this damn chapter already so I could answer this. And the answer to your question, is no. The infection does not affect animals. The reason behind this (if you want a reason which I kept thinking about) is that recall that in the first chapter, the first infected was a person. Yes, a person. The first infected person bit other people, turning them infected blah blah blah. Infected people, or creatures if you will, actually only have a taste and craving for human blood and not animal blood. So animals are actually safe from this infection, and in any case an animal would probably run from a human: infected or not. Because infected people/creatures don't have a craving for animal blood and only for human blood, the infection can't spread its way into animal bodies. If they DID have a craving for both animal and human blood, then yes animals could get infected. But here, no: the infection does not affect animals mainly because it cannot spread its way to them.**

**I hope that answers your question, and thank you for asking! That actually got me to thinking a little bit! If you guys are ever confused by something in the story or want something explained better or basically just want to leave a review or yell at me to update: feel free to leave a review! Don't be shy! :)**

**Speaking of updating: because of school and the fact that I'm working on cosplays since I'll be going to Colossalcon in June, updates for this story will most likely be spaced out a week from each other or a little over a week. I will NOT discontinue this story, mainly because I love it so much and I love zombiestuck with a burning passion, and I know people would kill me if I suddenly discontinued it.**

**So Horizon WILL be finished, It will NOT be discontinued. It might be put on hold for a certain period of time at points where I am busy or not able to write. For example, testing at my school is coming up. When that does come, I'll let you guys know if I will be putting Horizon on hold for a certain period of time. I will not just randomly leave without letting you guys!**

**Now that I have said that, please do not yell at me too much for not updating every other day! I will write this story to the very end! :)**

**DAMMIT I FORGOT TO SAY SOMETHING HOLD ON REWIND:**

**How did you guys like my introduction of the rest of the beta kids and also meeting back up with our two main survivors and how their coping with feelings? Karkat's rejecting any and all possible feelings toward Nepeta, since he is still drawn to Terezi about him killing her and how he actually liked her. Nepeta on the other hand is rejecting her feelings mainly because she had only just met him ten days ago, and she's telling herself that she can't like someone so quickly like that. I figured it would be best to mention their feelings for one another as of right now in the story, and I thought it would be fitting for our shipper cat girl to be the first one to develop a tiny little "crush". **

**I think next chapter we'll still be with Karkat and everyone now that he is awake, and maybe meet up with other survivors if I feel like it. I don't know which pair of survivors though; there's so many right now. **

**Oh also! (I keep forgetting things) How many of you actually got to read the update on April 13th? I didn't get to, I'm so far behind. I celebrated the day though by dressing up as none other than the birthday boy himself, John Egbert. Haha. **

**I'll let you guys go now. Don't wanna continue blabbing on and on about stupid stuff. **

**Hope you guys enjoyed Chapter five and look out for Chapter six! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**WARNING: There are feels later on in this chapter.  
**

**If you want a song or two to listen to while reading this chapter, I would highly recommend listening to some Broadway Karkat and Aradia songs. You don't have to, but I highly recommend it!**

**Regarding the feels part, I was hitting myself in the chest with my fist while writing it.**

**Enjoy Chapter 6!**

* * *

_**11 days have passed since the infection first started**_

Nepeta Leijon stalked into Karkat Vantas' room at precisely eight in the morning, holding her claw gloves and two sickles. The claws were hers, obviously, and, after much debate with Jade over Karkat's handgun the day before, the two sickles she held were for the male who she was going to tackle pounce if he was not up.

Yup: not up, like predicted.

The female sighed and dropped the weapons onto his bed and proceeded to shake him, saying in her normal tone of voice, "Karkat Vantas it is time to get up."

He grunted at her and turned his body the opposite direction. "Five more minutes…"

She sighed, _again_, and pushed the boy out of his bed; causing a yelp from him as he tumbled to the floor.

"THE FUCK?!"

"I told you to get up."

Karkat pushed himself up, now looking over the bed at the female who was gathering up the weapons she had previously put down. "So you just up and push me out of bed?!"

She shrugged and gave a nod. "Pretty much."

The red eyed male growled and stood up; his hair was disheveled and so were his clothes. He readjusted said clothes and looked over to the female yet again. "Who the hell are those sickles for?"

The olive eyed female held the sickles out to him. "You."

"What?! No they're not! I have a handgun! Where the fuck is that?!"

"Jade confiscated it. She and John are the two who use guns now. They had these for a while, so after I sat and talked to Dave and her; they agreed that these would be your new weapons. Just try 'em out okay?"

Karkat growled and crossed his arms, turning his head away and pouting. "Hell no."

Nepeta let out yet another sigh. "Why not?"

"Strider basically decided that for me! I'm not fucking using it!"

"Do you really hate Dave all that much? He's a pretty nice guy you know." She emphasized the r in 'pretty', it coming out as a purr.

He looked over at her then away once again. "I just have a feeling me and him will not get along, if ever. He's a douche just by looking at him. I mean really: who the fuck wears sunglasses all the god damn time?!"

Nepeta rolled her eyes; her arm still outstretched holding the sickles. "Would you please use them? Fur me?"

A moment of silence, then Karkat grunted and took the sickles from her hands. "...I'll use them for you but that's it."

"Cat pun!"

"_Fur _you, god dammit Nep."

Nepeta gave a toothy grin and slipped on her claw gloves. "Come on, Jade and efurryone should be up by now so we can start the meeting!"

With that the female walked out, and Karkat stood there staring after her. The only thought that crossed his mind was:

_What the fuck did I just get myself roped into with this girl?_

* * *

Jade perked up immediately as she saw the pair walk into the "meeting" room. "Nepeta! Karkat!"

Nepeta gave a toothy grin, replying, "Good morning Jade!"

Karkat gave a grunt in return, mumbling. "Not for me…"

The black haired female patted the seat next to her, to which the seventeen year old sat down and immediately the two started talking. Karkat grunted again and sat down next to Rose, who was across from the two other girls reading a book. She acknowledged his presence, giving a nod of her head.

John was sitting next to Jade, at the end of the table. The table was big enough for the six of them; two sat on either side of the table while one person sat on either end of the table.

The other male present in the room was fiddling with his thumbs and occasionally commented on Jade and Nepeta's conversation. In all honesty, Karkat wasn't paying much attention to the two female's conversation; he was way too tired to do so anyway.

Without Karkat noticing, Dave walked in and sat down at the other end of the table; opposite of John and right next to him.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

The conversation between Jade and Nepeta ceased and Rose closed her book. Everyone's attention was on Dave now: everyone except Karkat's.

Nepeta taped her claws attached to her gloves on the table in front of Karkat. He moved his eyes to focus on her as she pointed to Dave who had recently started speaking.

Karkat moved his focus to him, now picking up on the conversation that was taking place.

"…about three miles away we ran into infected yesterday on the way back." Dave finished his sentence that Karkat had now picked up on.

Nepeta spoke next, "Are they moving out of the city?"

"If they are it means that they are running out of food sources there." Rose this time.

John now, "Yesterday when we were there, we witnessed that some of the infected could run now and even jump onto their victims. Before they could only walk and some could run, but none could jump."

"Are they evolving?" It was Nepeta again this time. "Mutating?"

Rose answered her question, "They could be mutating and/or evolving. One of them did jump onto Jade and almost bite her; that is, until Dave saved her."

Dave gave a blush and Jade giggled, the female answering. "That is true! I know Dave would save me if it ever happened again!"

Nepeta smiled and patted her arm. "I'm sure he would Jade!"

Karkat coughed and all attention went to him. "Can we get back on subject?"

"Right." Rose agreed, "Well, if the infection did mutate; it's happening rather fast considering the infection started almost two weeks ago. Cities have already been taken over by infected, and the government has already fallen as well."

"So I guess we can just give up on soldiers coming to protect us?" Nepeta spoke again, having a worried look on her face.

The nineteen year old blonde female nodded. "Not entirely, but yes. The government sent out soldiers a few days after the infection started to make sure more cities didn't fall, but by now there could only be one or two cities still under control of soldiers and the government; most likely on the east coast actually."

"It wouldn't be very smart to travel across the country just to see if some dumbass soldiers would take us in. They could be dead by now." Karkat grunted again and looked over at Nepeta, who nodded in response to what he said.

John spoke, "Karkat's got a point. By the time we got there, they could be dead or turn us away."

Dave and Jade nodded in agreement, Rose as well as she spoke, "I guess the best course of action is to stay where we are for now and continue to salvage looking for supplies and of course any survivors. It's a miracle we found you three when we did."

Nepeta smiled. "Rose…I never did get a chance to thank you by the way."

"What for?"

"For saving Karkat."

Rose gave the seventeen year old a smile. "It was my pleasure Nepeta."

Karkat grunted again and put his head down, now just kind of staring over at Dave who had an expression of pure impatience written over his face when he spoke, "So who all votes to stay on the west side of the United States while we search for survivors?"

Everyone said "I", well everyone except Karkat. He was too tired to deal with this bullshit. Nepeta managed to get an "I" out of him after she gently nudged his arm and asked.

Dave spoke again, "We'll stay in the West then. Meeting ended."

Jade immediately shot up as Dave called the end, bounding out the door and calling after her, "Come on Nepeta!"

Nepeta giggled and shook Karkat again, mumbling to him, "Come on sleepy."

With that Karkat lifted his head just as the seventeen year old female bounded out the door after the raven haired one, giving a grunt then staring up at Rose who was now just standing up.

The light blonde female gave a smile as she pointed to the door. "You might want to follow them. They're going on a little trip to the city in about an hour. Nepeta wanted you to come with."

"When did they fucking decide that?"

"Yesterday, when you were resting."

The male gave a grunt and stood up, following John and Dave out the door with Rose walking behind him, "Do I have to go Rose?"

She rolled her eyes, nodding. "Yes you do."

"God dammit."

John giggled and poked Karkat in the arm. "Karkat has to go on a salvage mission with his girlfriend! Ha!"

The red eyed male growled and pushed John's hand away. "Would you fucking shut up with that?! Nepeta's not my fucking girlfriend!"

Dave snorted. "You sure make it seem like that."

"What the fuck do you mean Strider?!" Karkat's head snapped toward the blonde male.

"I mean, you make it seem like Nepeta is your girlfriend or some shit. I mean come on; you said her name about three times while you were in a god damn coma, and Nepeta found you down the hallway looking for her yesterday."

Karkat blushed and looked away, now having his arms crossed. The part about him looking for Nepeta yesterday was true, but he hardly remembered saying her name three times. She did tell him he said it once while she was present…did that mean he said it two more times in his 'coma' while she wasn't present and Dave was?  
God dammit why was this so fucking complicated?!

The eighteen year old mumbled, "Nepeta and I aren't fucking dating alright?"

"Whatever you say Kitkat."

"Don't fucking call me that Strider!"

* * *

"Karkat! What took you so long silly?"

Said male was trudging out of the compound, a backpack slung over his shoulder. With some help from Rose, he had been able to pack some supplies to take with him for, apparently, a trip to the city with Nepeta and Jade. Around his waist was a belt where the two sickles Nepeta had given him this morning hung.

"Strider and Egbert wouldn't fucking shut up."

Both girls giggled as he drew closer, now stopping in front of the two. "Seems likely of them." The older female replied.

Karkat grunted again and looked down at the two. Nepeta was currently sharpening her claws again with the same pocket knife she had used when the two of them had found the gloves, while Jade was now standing up and putting her rifle in the back seat of the van, next to about three other guns. "Why the fuck are we taking a van to get to the city?"

"It's easier and faster that way Karkat, and plus we have a lot of gasoline cans in the back so if we run out we'll be fine."

"And if there's infected around and we fucking run out?"

"That hasn't happened yet, and we always make sure to fill the van before we leave." Jade explained as she opened the two back doors of the van, pulling out a gasoline can and doing as she said.

Nepeta stood up and opened the passenger door, getting in. After about two minutes, she said to Jade, "I think that should be good Jade!"

The other female smiled and nodded, stopping and putting the can in the back. "Get in Karkat! We've got searching to do!"

Said male nodded and climbed in as Jade shut the door behind him before getting into the driver seat.

Again, the same thought from earlier that morning crossed his mind:

_What the hell did I get myself into?_

* * *

_ Blood._

Lots and lots of red and black blood.

Sollux Captor was holding his dying girlfriend, Aradia Megido, in his arms. She had been bitten by an infected when he wasn't watching, then a gunshot to the chest came from out of nowhere; and now here she was bleeding out and in pain.

The only thing he could really do was hold her and sob. She was dying. She was dying. _She was dying._

And there was nothing he could do about it.

Feferi stood over him, her hand on his shoulder. Eridan had been put down earlier, by her hand, after he had turned as well. She was holding back sobs for both of their friends, just for Sollux's sake.

What could she say anyway? That it would be okay? That he would get over it?  
Those were horrible things to say. So she stood there, watching as he cried endlessly over his dying girlfriend.

Aradia wasn't gone just yet though, as her heart was still beating. Sollux held her face now, whispering, "Come on AA. Don't do this to me. Don't leave me here. Come on. I promised your mom and sister that you would live. Come on…"

The raven haired female smiled slightly, though she would not speak. The blonde kept talking, "Aradia come on. Come on AA. Don't do this. Don't. Say something. Please don't leave."

She continued smiling, and this time she whispered words for him only, "Don't…cry…"

"AA!"

"I'll…be alright Sollux…"

"AA please don't. Aradia please don't leave me." He was sobbing harder than ever, and Feferi was now kneeling next to him. Sollux saw tears start to drip out of her eyes. He knew she was crying not only over Aradia, but also over her best friend.

"Feferi…"

The female in question lifted her head, now looking at the other. "Y-Yes…Aradia?"

Aradia was staring back at her, still smiling. "Please…take care…of Sollux for me…"

Feferi nodded quickly, tears now slipping down her face as well. "I will Aradia…you have my word."

The smile remained on the raven hairs face as her mahogany eyes looked to her boyfriend's ones. "Sollux…"

"Yeah…AA?"

She looked to the orange sky now; the sun was dipping over the horizon. "I love you…"

"…I love you too, Aradia."

Sollux felt her heart stop and watched as she drew her last breath. Then, her body was as cold as ice.

He lost it.

The blonde broke down crying once again, and so did the female next to him.

They had both lost someone important to them; not able to do one thing about it or stop it from happening.

Sollux lifted his head as tears still streamed down his face, staring into Aradia's lifeless ones. Her head was tilted upwards, eyes staring at the orange sun.

He lifted his head upwards as well, staring at the same orange sky as his beloved. Feferi soon lifted her head, staring at Sollux as she was still crying.

The blonde smiled slightly as he realized why she had looked to the sun in her dying moments, whispering, "You always admired the sun, huh AA?"

A gentle gust of wind blew across their bodies, almost answering his question.

"…Now you'll get to be up there forever with it."

Feferi stared at him still, now lifting her head upward as well and speaking, "Hey…Aradia? Tell Eridan…I'll miss him."

Another gust of wind, and the both of them smiled with tears stained on their faces.

They knew the deceased weren't gone.

Aradia was Sollux's sun, and he knew she would take her place as that in the sky; watching over him and lighting his path.

Eridan and Feferi had been the best of friends since they were little, and she knew he would watch over her and become the wind; he had always spoken of becoming a pilot and she knew he would want to continue his dream even in the next life.

They weren't gone. They would always be there watching over them. Sollux and Feferi would miss them yes, and they would cry and mourn their passing for the rest of their lives.

But, they would learn to cope with the grief. And with that, they would become stronger.

Sollux spoke, his head to the sky, "We'll miss you, AA and ED."

* * *

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTER(S) SO FAR:  
****ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE TROLLS AND KIDS ARE DEAD (This includes Ancestors, Alpha Kids and Trolls, and Guardians)  
Terezi Pyrope (Former Girlfriend of Karkat Vantas)**  
**Tavros Nitram (Classmate and friend of Karkat Vantas)  
Aradia Megido (Girlfriend of Sollux Captor)  
Eridan Ampora (Best friend of Feferi Peixes)  
**

**So how did you enjoy the new chapter? Did it make your feels hurt? Did it make you laugh and smile?**

**ALSO DON'T KILL ME THAT PEOPLE ARE DEAD! ESPECIALLY ARADIA! **

**I love Aradia to death. I do. But, I felt it would be best to let her and Eridan go. As mentioned, they are still watching over Feferi and Sollux now; becoming the sun and the wind, respectively. **

**I enjoyed the first part of this chapter and as mentioned at the start was hitting myself in the chest with my fist while writing the feels part. It hurt. It hurt a lot.**

***silently sobbing***

**Anyway, I hope you did enjoy Chapter 6! Especially because I got terrible writer's block throughout the week and couldn't think of an idea for this chapter for the life of me. I started writing this chapter Thursday, but yesterday I erased everything I had and started over. Thus, this chapter was written. **

**I *might* get writer's block for Chapter 7, but I don't know yet. I think what we'll do is stick with Karkat, Jade, and Nepeta since they are traveling to the city of Salem, OR to search for supplies and survivors. **

**HINT HINT: The city that Feferi and Sollux are near is Salem. SURPRISE! SPOILERS! OOOOOOH!**

**Haha, I'm stupid. Anywayyyy, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**And as always, feel free to leave a review and ask me about things you're confused on or want better explained! You can even leave me a review complimenting the chapter and yell at me to update faster! **

**See you next chapter! ~**


	7. Chapter 7

**GUESS WHO'S NOT DEAD BUT GOT SICK LAST WEEK PLUS WENT TO HER CAMPGROUND AND GOT A JOB OVER THE WEEKEND AND THAT'S WHY THIS IS BEING UPDATED ON A TUESDAY!  
**

**HA HA HA HA! *shot***

**Ehhhh...but seriously, yeah I got sick last week and was coughing, sniffling, my throat hurt like hell and some numbness in my legs and arms that made it impossible for me to sit down at my desk and write this story. I started writing this chapter Tuesday last week, and here it is finally done and now being posted.**

**Regarding my sickness, I am better now and only occasionally cough and have a terrible runny nose. The "feeling of weights" on my body (which it literally felt like that) has passed and now I'm back to writing. **

**Regarding me getting a job: up at my campground there's a store there like to buy things ya know and I got a job up there working from 1 to 3 in the afternoon but I'm gonna talk to the owner (who's my boss) and see if I can work from noon to 3. So yeah, now I got a summer job and I make $6 an hour. YAY!**

**So now that that has been said, I'm going to try to update during the week now since I work on Saturday's up at my campground and there is horrible Wifi up there and my laptop likes to be a douche to me. If this changes I will let you guys know. Honestly, I think I'm going to have to move updating this story to during the week instead of on Friday's and Saturday's like I usually do. If my laptop cooperates with me and I can actually get the internet to work up at my campsite, because there's like really good wifi in my camper but like it doesn't wanna cooperate with me, then possibly I will be going back to updating on Saturday's around like six at night or so or on Sunday's. **

**Like I said, I honestly think I'm just going to move my updating to during the week and work on it whenever I can. **

**Also, please cooperate with me! I am going to colossalcon in June and have to work on my cosplays for it! If I don't update for over a week, like I'm doing with updating now on a tuesday about ten days from my previous update, please understand that I'm not trying to push off updating! I'm simply busy with my cosplays for Colossal! **

**After Colossalcon, which I'm staying there until Saturday night and then leaving, I'm going to Myrtle Beach with my friend and her family for about a week. I most likely will not get back from that vacation until the following Sunday. So this is a warning in advance: starting June 3rd I will not be updating Horizon. This hiatus, if you will, will be ending June 14th. I'm going to try and have a chapter completely written and up before I leave for Colossal and Myrtle Beach. If ANY of you guys are going to Colossal, I would absolutely LOVE to meet you. If you cannot attend, don't worry! On my Youtube Channel, which a link to it is on my profile, after I get back from Myrtle Beach or perhaps when I'm there, I will be editing and posting a video of my adventures at Colossal. I perhaps will maybe film some things while I'm at Myrtle Beach and make another video of my little vacation. I know FOR SURE I will be making a video of my adventures at Colossal and posting it on Youtube since it IS my first con.  
**

**If you guys are going or wanna know who I'm doing for Colossal, you can visit my Instagram with the username of 'nepetaspurrfectkitty' and check out my lineup which is up on there! If you enjoy my cosplays you see on there, then give me a follow!**

**Anyways, getting back on track, here's Chapter 7! I'll be talking more at the end of this.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_**11 day(s) have passed since the infection started**_

"Karkat! Wake up! We're here!"

Said male awoke to Nepeta Leijon's voice, lifting his head and staring at the two females in the front of the van. Jade was already getting out of said van while Nepeta was staring back at him with a toothy grin.

"Time to get up sleepyhead."

He grunted and opened the back door of the van, taking his two sickles with him as he exited. The female who woke him got out as well, slipping on her claw gloves. The other was already strapping her three guns that were in the back of the van to her back, now holding her rifle and loading it.

The only male looked around; now taking in the scenery of the city they had entered.

There wasn't much to look at really; buildings were already decrypt and dirtied while cars on the roads were left abandoned, especially on the road they were on right now. The van was stopped in front of a barricade of cars, either to keep creatures in or keep them out.

Jade didn't seem to mind it though, probably because she had done this a million times in the past week they were here waiting for Karkat to wake up from his coma. The raven haired female jumped over the barrier of cars, calling out behind her, "Follow me guys!"

Nepeta followed after her, jumping over the barricade. Karkat soon followed after, not jumping over but gradually making his way over since Rose had told him before they left not to strain the stitches on his side.

After he had managed to get over, with Nepeta's help, the trio started walking into the city.

They first walked through neighborhoods upon neighborhoods full of littered cars. None would turn on though; either they were out of gasoline or the keys weren't in the car.

Each time they tried to enter a house to raid, the doors and windows were locked or boarded up. Karkat tried going at the boards with his sickles, but he couldn't break one board off.

After about two hours of just wandering and always coming upon dead ends, the three had managed to break into one house by Nepeta and Karkat breaking a glass window on the first floor.

_Huh…that's weird that it wasn't broken out by now._ Nepeta thought to herself as she climbed in through the window first.

After the female was in, she proceeded to look around the house; just scoping out the first floor. There was a second, but for some reason; Nepeta didn't want to go up there right away. She had a bad feeling about up there.

Nepeta moved from the living room to the family room to the kitchen; not finding or hearing one thing in the first two rooms.

When she arrived in the kitchen, that's when she heard the moans of infected.

In the kitchen, across from the sink and oven, a door leading to the basement was blockaded up with only a couple chairs and the bolt on it was locked. Nepeta could hear the moans from down there, and it didn't look like the blockade would keep them down there for much longer.

She was right.

As the seventeen year old turned around to call out to her companions outside, the blockade fell as the lock broke; and two infected stormed up the stairs, right at Nepeta.

"Frick frick frick frick!"

"Nepeta?!" Karkat's voice, "I'm coming in there!"

As Karkat entered the house, against Jade's wishes of waiting until Nepeta came back out, he saw that she had her back pressed up a countertop with her claws raised to defend herself. It was just one the female was dealing with, and Karkat saw a second coming up behind the first.

Not even one second passed as Karkat decapitated the second one and held his sickle up against the throat of the first. And in just one fraction of a second, Nepeta had lunged her claws through its mouth while Karkat flicked his sickle to decapitate it; and the infected lay dead.

Her first reaction: "Holy shit."

His first reaction: "Are you alright Nep?"

Before the two could even say another word to each other, Jade walked into the kitchen.

"Hey guys! I see you took care of two infected! Good job!"

Nepeta just sheepishly laughed as Karkat rolled his eyes. The two moved away from each other and the trio immediately started searching for supplies.

* * *

_**12 day(s) have passed since the infection started**_

"Sollux…hey Sollux…" Feferi nudged the blonde in the side that was still asleep on the floor of an abandoned building they had taken refuge in the night before when they had entered the city of Salem, Oregon.

Sollux simply groaned at her, picking up his head and fumbling for his glasses. "What time is it FF?"

The brunette scrambled to her feet, going over to the only window that had boards up on it in the shape of an x to let in sunlight. She peeked around the boards, observing. "The sun just came over the horizon!"

The blonde sighed and got to his feet, grabbing his dual hand guns. Feferi ran back over and picked up her two twin short swords, dusting them off.

The two knocked down the barricade they had done, and exited.

* * *

"Karkat!"

Again, the male awoke to Nepeta Leijon's voice.

He looked over to her, and saw that she didn't have a shirt on and was faced away from him.

Fuck.

Karkat held a hand to his nose and immediately looked away; just praying to god Jade wasn't nearby and he did not just get a nosebleed over Nepeta Leijon.

"Nepeta put a fucking shirt on! God!"

A sheepish little giggle came from her as, Karkat presumed, she slipped back on her shirt. "Woops! Sorry!"

"Sorry my ass." He grumbled, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

Karkat still had the same clothes on from when the infection started. Obviously they were dirtied to hell and back, and the left sleeve of his black long sleeve shirt was torn off; presumably from when Rose was patching him up while he was unconscious. He still wore the vest Kanaya had given him with the gray cancer symbol in the upper right hand corner, a bit of blood now stained on the vest itself from when he had decapitated the infected from yesterday.

_Kanaya…fuck…where could she be? Or is she dead too?_

Nepeta on the other hand wore her black short sleeve shirt she had now just slipped back on and jeans that had been cut at the knees. On her shirt was a painted Leo symbol in the upper right hand corner, kind of like Karkat's on his vest. He figured that her zodiac sign was Leo if she had gone to the trouble of painting it on her shirt in the same place like his.

Oddly enough, it wasn't painted in blood; but in actual green paint. It was an olive color, like the sleeves that were on her arms the day he met her.

Nepeta turned around and gave him her signature toothy grin, and it looked like she had just stopped blushing because a little bit of pink was still left on her cheeks.

_Was she blushing before because of the little incident with her shirt being off…? And she didn't realize I had seen?_

"Good to see you two are up." The raven female entered the room and gave them both a smile. "The sun is up in the sky now so we'll be heading out as soon as possible. Dave asked me yesterday before we left to find some radios that still worked, so that's number one on our list of supplies!"

Nepeta gave a smile to Jade, also giving a thumbs up. "Sounds like a plan! We'll eat before we head out then! Come on Karkitty!"

Karkat grunted at her, typical of him at this point really, and followed the female as she left the room.

Before he could however, Jade gave him a little tap on the shoulder and the male turned to face her.

She had a suggestive smile on her face as she spoke, "You like Nepeta don't you?"

Karkat scoffed, crossing his arms; yet it was probably obvious that there was a blush creeping up onto his face. "W-What makes you say that?"

"Well for one, you're blushing."

"Am not!"

"Two, you said her name while in that coma of yours."

"Stop bringing it up I do not-"

"Three, you basically do everything she asks you to do without question. You didn't _have_ to come on this mission with us. John was actually going to come if you rejected, which we thought you would. But you came along anyway."

"That's because I care about her." The male stated plainly.

Jade continued speaking, make a fourth point. "Four: yesterday you jumped into that house against my orders just to see if Nepeta was alright. And because of that, you decapitated two infected just to save her."

"I care about her alright?!" The dark haired brunette basically screamed that at the raven.

The raven shrunk back, and then smirked. "That means you have feelings for her right?"

Silence.

Then: "I don't know Jade, okay? I just have this urge to protect Nepeta at the cost of my own life. It's been that way since day one of when this infection started."

Jade smiled, her smirk now gone. "Nepeta told me that story. You saved her from being infected…She's grateful for that ya know."

Karkat gave a sheepish little grin. "I thought so honestly."

A voice from down the hallway of the abandoned apartment complex floor they were in sounded. "Karkattttt! Come on grouchy!"

The rolling of the r made Karkat sigh as he gave Jade a look that was along the lines of 'I gotta go'. The female just smiled and nodded, and Karkat went on his way.

As he went to leave, Jade whispered under her breath, "She likes you too ya know."

Karkat heard, but he didn't say a word.

* * *

Three in the afternoon.

Three in the fucking afternoon on a May afternoon.

And Sollux Captor and Karkat Vantas were sweating their asses off.

Though the two had never met, yet would as soon as they turned the corner both of them were coming up on, they were both sweating their asses off.

The females they walked with were behind the both of them, as they were the males of the group and were supposed to protect the females.

Karkat turned the corner first just as Sollux did, and the two ran smack dab into each other.

"THE FUCK?!" An angry voice, Karkat's, screamed.  
"WHAT THE SHIT?!" Another voice, this one lisped, screamed at the exact same time.

Nepeta had her claws drawn, Jade with her gun loaded and aimed, and Feferi with her swords drawn.

The two males simply stared at each other, more like glaring honestly.

A few moments passed, and they registered what had happened.

"Nepeta, Jade; we found survivors."

"FF, these guys are survivors; like us."

* * *

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTER(S) SO FAR:  
****ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE TROLLS AND KIDS ARE DEAD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED (This includes Ancestors, Alpha Kids and Trolls, and Guardians)  
Terezi Pyrope (Former Girlfriend of Karkat Vantas)**  
**Tavros Nitram (Classmate and friend of Karkat Vantas)  
Aradia Megido (Girlfriend of Sollux Captor)  
Eridan Ampora (Best friend of Feferi Peixes)**

**Did you enjoy my little chapter that took FOREVER to write? Hmmmmmmmm? ::::)**

**Sorry I became Vriska there for a moment.**

**Which by the way if you couldn't keep track of numbers, This is Chapter SEVEN. Next one is Chapter EIGHT. You could probably guess who we will be meeting up with next chapter. **

**By the way, I honestly disliked the first part of this chapter and liked the second part where were with Karkat and he's waking up and seeing Nep shirtless and is like "oh fuck". From that point on, I liked it. That's my honest opinion though.**

**But yes, speaking of Karkitty; seems like he's getting protective over little Nepeta now. *secret shipping laughter* Ah, their relationship is developing at a steady pace.**

**Honestly its bugging me that I can't make them kiss and I'm like "WHY CAN'T I JUST MAKE THEM KISS"**

**Hahahahahaha...I need help.**

**OOH, I finished watching Markiplier's Outlast play-through; and it's giving me some ideas to do for this story. ;) Be afraid, be very afraid. (I would never do things so gory like they are in the game though)**

**Before I let you all go to wonder when I will update next, I actually want to reply to a review despite it not being a question.**

**To Isura Hikari who reviewed on Chapter 6: Thank you. Honestly, thank you. When I read your review when it came up in my email, I was having a pretty shitty day that day and when I read it; it made me smile. You should TOTALLY start a zombiestuck. This is probably one of my favorite Homestuck AU's, and not just because I'll be cosplaying from it. KatNep is my fricking OTP and I'm glad that is yours as well (SCREAMING BECAUSE YES). I'm also happy that you love this fanfic so much and that doesn't just go for you but for everyone else who loves it too; honestly, thank you. So, when I read your review, it made me strive to write this chapter. I was talking to my friend and I showed her your review and said "I don't know why but I just wanna write Chapter seven now. Like, I don't even know this person but I just wanna write it for them." **

**I'm glad you think its awesome Isura Hikari, so I strived to update and here it is. Also, I lub you too. :3 Thank you for giving me the push to start writing this and finish it. **

**Not just Isura Hikari, but for every reader who reads this story and enjoys it and waits patiently for the next update; honestly, thank you so much. I love all of you with every fiber of my being and because of you guys I am pushing myself everyday to continue writing and get the new chapter out as soon as possible. **

**That being said, I'm going to start writing Chapter 8 tomorrow or Thursday and hopefully have it out over the weekend. **

**Thank you all so much, and I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7 and my little sappy speech here at the end. **

**See you all next chapter! :3**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: DON'T KILL ME PLEASE *shoves Chapter 8 into your face so you don't kill me for not updating in like two weeks*  
**

**I was so busy with working on cosplays and at my campground that I didn't have time to sit down and write this god damn chapter! But, I found time today and so I sat down and wrote! I'm still working on my Disciple cosplay (attaching sleeves to the shirt actually, everything else is done) and Nepeta is almost finished for Colossalcon as well! Ahhhh, wish me luck!**

**Oh, little side note; I've been talking to my crush a lot lately (ever since Friday actually) and I might be hanging out with them Saturday. (Wish me luck!)**

**OHHHH! Before I let you read the chapter, let me reply to reviews real quick! You can skip over the rest of this Author's Note if you would like to get to the chapter!**

**Reply to Oreoo****: Firstly, yes I am better! Finally! More so now than two weeks ago actually! Secondly, thank you because I wasn't too proud of Chapter 7. Thirdly, YES I WATCH MARKIPLIER ISN'T HE AMAZING AND THE BEST YOUTUBER EVER?!**

**Reply to ThyRoyalAwesomeness: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the story so far and adore my writing! It means a lot to me! Also yes, KatNep/KarNep isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea; but it is a really adorable ship and my absolute OTP. Also don't worry about the DaveJade, yaoi will come eventually I promise you. :)**

**Enjoy Chapter 8!**

* * *

_**13 days have passed since the infection first started**_

"Augh! This fucking stinks! It hurts all over! Why the fuck would you do that?!"

Why did he do that? At first, there were no infected around them, and then as soon as they hit Yellowstone National Park in the northwestern part of Wyoming; infected surrounded them. They had managed to fight them off, but one bit the Scorpion girls arm just as they were finishing the fight.

And now that same girl sat against a tree trunk with that same arm not connected to her body.

Equius had decapitated Vriska Serket's left arm, and blood was everywhere.

"I…I do not know. The only thought that came to my mind was to decapitate your arm before you turned into one of the infected."

"WELL IT WORKED YOU ASS HAT I'M NOT INFECTED BUT NOW I ONLY HAVE ONE ARM."

"One arm is better than no arms."

"SHUT UP AND HELP ME CONTROL THE BLEEDING!"

* * *

_**25 days have passed since the infection first started**_

That event had happened over a week ago: Equius Zahhak had decapitated Vriska Serket's arm just to make sure she didn't turn.

True friends huh?

The older male slightly laughed to himself, and looked up from a room that he shared with a certain Capricorn male in the compound outside of Salem, Oregon to see a seventeen year old female poking her head in with an angry looking eighteen year old male above her; the female, he presumed, didn't know that the male was there above her.

The females name was Nepeta Leijon, while the male was named Karkat Vantas. The two were survivors, obviously, and along with them were about eight other people in the compound; not including Vriska and himself.

It was hard to believe that twelve people, all coming from different places around the United States, who had just met, were now living together in a compound during an apocalyptic situation.

There were seven rooms in the compound, each big enough to hold two beds; so what had happened when the original six had to make room for six more, they doubled up.

Dave Strider and John Egbert had paired up in one room.

Rose Lalonde and Jade Harley in another.

Nepeta Leijon and Feferi Peixes teamed up.

Karkat Vantas and Sollux Captor as well.

Vriska Serket and Kanaya Maryam.

And last but not least, Equius Zahhak and Gamzee Makara.

Speaking of two out of those twelve, what were Nepeta and Karkat doing in the Sagittarius' door frame again?

Nepeta spoke first, "Good morning sleepyhead!"

Equius gave a smile to her, saying back. "Good morning Nepeta. May I ask why you are stalking in my door frame?"

"No special reason! Just saying good morning!" The Leo gave him her signature grin, completely unaware of the cancer male behind her who was preparing to scare her. He WAS motioning to Equius to not let the Leo know he was there, and to not make eye contact with him so much.

"Well good morning, and Nepeta; are you aware of the-"

Equius did not have time to finish that sentence, as Karkat engulfed the female in his arms and spun her around. She screeched and scratched at the long sleeve shirt of the Cancer male, and the Sagittarius could only laugh.

It was no secret to anyone in the compound that something was happening between Karkat and Nepeta, but every time one asked either of them about their relationship; they would only say they were very close friends and wanted to protect the other.

No mention of a crush whatsoever.

Feferi and Kanaya had managed to make Nepeta spill SOME details of their relationship, yet the only big thing that came out of it was that the Leo had admitted to having a 'flush crush' (which is what she called it) on the male.

Karkat had not spilled any details, only admitting to wanting to protect the younger female from any harm that came upon her.

"Karkat that's not fair! I thought that game ended yesterday!"

"It ends today Nep, and I think I won the game."

A pout came from her. "Dang it Karkitty!"

Also the two liked to play games a lot that involved scaring and/or pranking the other.

They liked to play those games a lot.

"If you two want to be all lovey dovey can you motherfuckers go somewhere else?"

The voice came from behind the "lovers"; it belonged to Gamzee Makara, who was constantly taking some kind of weird medication or drug that made him sound like he was high all the god damn time.

The drug was not a prescription one, thank god.

Gamzee and his brother, Kurloz, actually created the drug themselves with ingredients found in nature. If Gamzee ever ran out, Kanaya knew the ingredients he used to make it and could create several more if need be.

Which they would have to get her to make it immediately, because Kanaya first hand had seen what happens when Gamzee isn't taking that drug.

He turned into a cold blooded killer.

If Kanaya ever died, oh boy would they be in serious trouble.

Karkat turned to the Capricorn with Nepeta still lifted off her feet in his arms. "Oh hey Gam."

"Hey best bro. Why in the motherfucking world are you holding Nep-sis like that?"

Nepeta looked up at Karkat, as did Equius from his place on the bed across the room. A faint red blush spread across the cancer males cheeks and he automatically put Nepeta back down. "N-No reason."

The Leo giggled and stalked out of the room as the Sagittarius was too focused on the Cancer and Capricorn.

Gamzee and Karkat spoke back and forth in the long hallway about 'Nep-sis', as Gamzee had dubbed her.

"Bro, if you like her so motherfucking much; why don't you just ask her out?"

"Yeah I'll totally go up to Nepeta fucking Leijon during an apocalypse and go 'Hey, I want to date you'. Yeah that'll go over well. Plus you know how much I would get teased from fucking Sollux."

"Sol-bro? Dude, didn't you hear? He might have some feelings for Feferi. If he teases you about liking Nep-sis, just tease him back about liking Feferi."

"I don't know Gam…I mean yeah Nepeta's kind of cute and all, but like I said we're in a zombie apocalypse basically. I just…I can't risk liking her and then she gets infected or killed…I would lose my shit if that ever happened."

* * *

"Kanaya, dear, what are you doing?"

The jade green eyed female looked up from her book on anatomy that she had 'borrowed' from the blonde who had attracted her attention.

"Oh, nothing, Rose."

"Stolen one of my books again have you?" A smile came from the nineteen year old; her tone being nothing near angry.

Kanaya smiled, giving a nod. "Perhaps so."

"Remember to return it when you're done with it." Rose remarked, returning to her work on, what looked like, an infected arm that had been separated from its owner.

"I will."

* * *

Really, it was quite quiet in the compound for once.

Rose was constantly in the lab coming up with new theories for the infection, while Kanaya stayed with her beloved and sewed up shirts, pants, or any clothing item that needed fixing.

Feferi and Nepeta were in their room gossiping about their respectable crushes on two males.

Vriska and John were doing the same, but gossiping over Nicolas Cage movies; strange of them really since it WAS the apocalypse.

Dave and Jade were either in the meeting room talking or in the room Jade shared with Rose making out; either of the two really.

Equius was working with robotic arm parts that they had salvaged from a mechanics shop the day before to; hopefully, make the Scorpion girl a new robotic arm for her to use in place of the one she lost.

That left three males: Sollux, Gamzee, and Karkat.

The three males were actually not present at the compound at that exact moment, as they were in charge of hunting for deer or any animal of some sort to bring back for a 'meal'.

Gamzee was taking another hit of his drug, and Sollux and Karkat were currently talking about two certain girls who were gossiping about them at that exact moment.

"So KK, you like Nepeta right?" Sollux lisped.

"For the umpteenth time, I'm not really sure if I do or not. One, because we are in a fucking zombie apocalypse. Two, WE ARE IN A FUCKING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. And three, I just want to protect her for some odd reason. She just…reminds me of someone else."

Karkat's thoughts drifted to a redheaded girl he had killed on day one of the apocalypse; Terezi Pyrope.

No matter how hard he tried and tried to forget her and push her out of his mind and move on; Karkat couldn't seem to do just that. He couldn't seem to just forget and move on. Yes, Terezi wouldn't have survived very long because of her blindness; but was that really an adjustable claim to have just shot her right then and there when she was infected? He could have just not shot her and left; closing and locking the door behind him and promising to hopefully find a cure to turn her back to normal.

Then again, would he have been able to make and keep that promise?

The cancer hadn't even thought about developing a cure for this god damn infection, much less how to deal with it.

They had already learned from Equius and Vriska's experience that decapitating a body part that has been bitten by an infected person would stop the infection right in its tracks, but what if there were other ways to get infected?

What would they do then?

The eighteen year old male shrugged and looked at his lisped roommate who was now speaking. "…I mean seriously how long is it gonna take you to get over TZ? I know you only told me about her a couple times but I can gradually piece together that you obviously liked her a lot."

"Sollux it's not that fucking easy to get over a dead girl. You of all people should know that."

A moment of silence.

Sollux shrugged after a while and then continued, "Well yeah. But I'm gradually getting over…AA. I know she's up there watching me like a hawk, and I don't think she would want to see me mourning over her death every second of the day."

"Can you guys not all up and talk about motherfucking relationships?" Gamzee's stoned voice spoke. "We got a hoard of infected coming."

Karkat peeked around the tree he was leaning up against, and saw the hoard Gamzee was talking about.

It wasn't just the regular old hoard of about five or ten they were used to dealing with in the past; oh no.

It was a hoard of about thirty or forty of them.

Sollux apparently saw it too, because he said aloud their thoughts; "Holy fucking shit."

Gamzee looked at Karkat. "Bro, what are we gonna do?"

Karkat didn't even look at his best friend. He just stared at the hoard, before finally saying:

"We need to warn everybody before that hoard gets there, because if we don't; everyone's going to end up dead."

* * *

**LIST OF DEAD CHARACTERS SO FAR:  
****ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE TROLLS AND KIDS ARE DEAD UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED (This includes Ancestors, Alpha Kids and Trolls, and Guardians)  
Terezi Pyrope (Former Girlfriend of Karkat Vantas)**  
**Tavros Nitram (Former Classmate and friend of Karkat Vantas)  
Aradia Megido (Former Girlfriend of Sollux Captor)  
Eridan Ampora (Former Best friend of Feferi Peixes)**

**Did you enjoy the chapter? ::::) The chapter wasn't necessarily all about Vriska, but it should have been because obviously Chapter 8.**

**I wanted this chapter to focus more on the question I got a while back about amputations and the development of Karkat and Nepeta's relationship, plus I just wanted all the alive characters in one god forsaken place!**

**So because of my wants and desires, Chapter 8 came about! I think I did pretty good with this chapter; touching on what I wanted to and getting to have a little cliff hanger at the end. B) **

**Okay, so I've realized also that the relationship statuses of the alive characters can be a little confusing, so here's a list of the relationship statuses of the ALIVE characters!**

**Karkat Vantas: has a crush on Nepeta (will not admit it to anyone but Gamzee) and is best friends with Kanaya and Gamzee  
Sollux Captor: has a crush on Feferi (not open about it but is hinted at)  
Nepeta Leijon: has a 'flush crush' on Karkat, is best friends with both Equius, Feferi, and Jade  
Kanaya Maryam: in a relationship with Rose, is best friends with Gamzee and Karkat  
Vriska Serket: undecided relationship, hinted at potential friendship with John  
Equius Zahhak: is best friends with Nepeta only  
Gamzee Makara: is best friends with Kanaya and Karkat  
Feferi Peixes: is best friends with Nepeta  
John Egbert: undecided relationship, is hinted at potential friendship with Vriska  
Rose Lalonde: in a relationship with Kanaya, is the sister of Dave  
Dave Strider: in a relationship with Jade, is the brother of Rose  
Jade Harley: in a relationship with Dave, is best friends with Nepeta  
**

**I hope that makes it easier for you guys to know the relationships of people as of this point in the story, that list and the Dead Characters List will be updated as the story progresses on!**

**Also, please be patient with me! You guys are doing a marvelous job of waiting for me to update and I'm honestly so happy and pleased that you guys are! Next week is my last week of school, and its finals! All this week I'm busy studying for them (which I should be doing right now) and working on my cosplays for Colossal! This weekend I have a party to attend to Saturday and then I believe hanging out with my crush afterwards, and spending the night at their house. (wish me luck!) And also remember that I work on Saturday's after that party and have no good internet up at my campground!**

**So for the next week or two I'm busy! So please please please please PLEASE be patient with me and updating! I'm not trying to forget this story or discontinue it, I promise I won't do that! It's just that my schedule is getting a little bit more busy with summer drawing near so its the constant shift between one project to another to another to another! **

**Thank you for your love, support, and understanding! I hope you can bear with me until the next chapter comes out! **

**Until the next chapter, see you! :33**


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